Gui-facilitated change management for vehicle electrical/electronic architecture design

ABSTRACT

Disclosed herein are computer aided design (CAD) techniques to implement a unified data schema and graphical user interface (GUI) to link ECU/devices, in-vehicle communications, and vehicle harness information together with respect to architectural relation, performance relation, and cost relation, and to facilitate a designer&#39;s understanding and manipulation of this information. The domain-specific information from each domain is converted to objects in this unified data schema and stored in a unified database that is accessible to every domain, so that the impact of the current state in the device domain can be accessed and analyzed by a designer from any domain. This approach enables design data sharing and real-time collaboration between different electrical/electronic (E/E) design domains, thereby facilitating the realization of design data collaboration, design change management, and product lifetime management (PLM) and product data management (PDM) implementation.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present disclosure is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.______ (Attorney Docket No. RA48366TS), entitled “GUI-FACILITATEDSIMULATION AND VERIFICATION FOR VEHICLE ELECTRICAL/ELECTRONIC DESIGN”having common inventorship and filed on even date herewith, and U.S.patent application Ser. No. ______, (Attorney Docket No. RA48367TS),entitled “COMPLEXITY MANAGEMENT FOR VEHICLE ELECTRICAL/ELECTRONICARCHITECTURE DESIGN” having common inventorship and filed on even dateherewith, the entireties of which are incorporated by reference herein.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates generally to computer assisted design(CAD) for vehicle electrical/electronic (E/E) architecture and productlifetime management (PLM) and more particularly to change management invehicle E/E architecture design.

BACKGROUND

Electronic systems are no longer isolated with a vehicle; instead theyare distributed with their functionality dependent on multipleelectronic control units (ECUs) and sub-systems connected over numerousharnesses and network buses. However, the specification of thesedistributed systems does not fit well with conventional vehicle designmethodologies, which are based on the design self-contained systems. Forproper and reliable operation, the interfaces between sub-systems/ECUsmust be not only specified at the signal/connectivity level, but alsomust meet specified performance requirements. This ensures that when thevehicle manufacturer (who typically plays the role of systemsintegrator) integrates the various components from various suppliers,the vehicle electrical system will perform as expected. Therefore, a keyto a successful integration at the vehicle level is to accuratelycharacterize the complete electrical/electronics (E/E) architecture ofthe vehicle, which comprises: power/ground distribution; electricalconnectivity (i.e., wiring); network buses, network topology andmessaging strategies; and distribution of system functionality intoelectronic control units (ECUs) and other devices. Due to the complexityof modern vehicles, vehicle manufactures have evolved from acomponent/subsystem focus to specifying a performance-driven E/Earchitecture for the vehicle. However, the designers of an E/Earchitecture for a vehicle typically are compartmentalized into separatedesign domains, such as wire harness design, software design, electroniccontrol unit (ECU) design, network bus design, and the like. In mostinstances, the designers in a given design domain focus on thearchitecture of that domain with little collaboration or informationsharing among the various design domains, resulting in a bottom-updevelopment process that can introduce cost overruns, delay the finaldevelopment of the E/E architecture, and produce a non-optimal E/Earchitecture for the vehicle.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure may be better understood, and its numerousfeatures and advantages made apparent to those skilled in the art byreferencing the accompanying drawings. The use of the same referencesymbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example electrical/electronic (E/E)architecture for a vehicle in accordance with at least one embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example E/E design system inaccordance with at least one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example processing system inaccordance with at least one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a collaborative E/E design processin accordance with at least one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating initial refinement/augmentationprocess of the process of FIG. 4 in accordance with at least oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 6-9 are diagrams illustrating example graphical user interfaces(GUIs) that provide a top-level graphical representation of componentsof a vehicle library in accordance with at least one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIGS. 10-16 are diagrams illustrating example GUIs that facilitateediting of an electronic control unit (ECU) of a vehicle library inaccordance with at least one embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 17-20 are diagrams illustrating example GUIs that facilitateediting of a network bus of a vehicle library in accordance with atleast one embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 20-25 are diagrams illustrating example GUIs that facilitateediting of signals of a vehicle library in accordance with at least oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 26 is a flow diagram illustrating an E/E architecturesimulation/verification process of the process of FIG. 4 in accordancewith at least one embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 27-43 are diagrams illustrating example GUIs that facilitate theE/E architecture simulation/verification process of FIG. 26 inaccordance with at least one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 44 is a flow diagram illustrating a vehicle architecture complexitymanagement process in accordance with at least one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 45 is a flow diagram illustrating an initial vehicle variancedefinition (VVD)/complexity determination process of the process of FIG.44 in accordance with at least one embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 46-54 are diagrams illustrating example GUIs that facilitate theinitial VVD/complexity determination process of FIG. 45 in accordancewith at least one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 55 is a flow diagram illustrating an example harness refinementprocess of the process of FIG. 44 in accordance with at least oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 56-59 are diagrams illustrating example GUIs that facilitate theharness refinement process of FIG. 55 in accordance with at least oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 60 is a flow diagram illustrating an example harness complexityoptimization process of the process of FIG. 44 in accordance with atleast one embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 61-64 are diagrams illustrating example GUIs that facilitate theharness complexity optimization process of FIG. 60 in accordance with atleast one embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As noted above, vehicle manufactures have evolved from acomponent/subsystem focus to specifying a performance-driven E/Earchitecture for the vehicle. Accordingly, the vehicle manufacturerwould benefit from a system-level design, specification and validationenvironment and methodology to enable specification of aperformance-drive E/E architecture. FIGS. 1-64 illustrate exampletechniques for such an environment.

In general, the E/E design for a vehicle manufacturer is separated intothree major domains: the device domain responsible for designing theelectronic control units (ECUs) and other devices (e.g., actuators,sensors, etc.); the harness (or wiring) domain responsible for designingthe wire harness connections; and the network domain responsible fordesigning the in-vehicle network buses (such as controller area network(CAN) buses, local interconnect network (LIN) buses, FlexRay buses,etc.). From these main design domains arise two other common domains:the software domain responsible for designing the software to implementthe functionality assigned to software-based ECUs; and the subsystemdomain responsible for integration of all of the E/E components on asub-system level (e.g., for the instrument panel of a vehicle). Eachdomain may use different and separate design tools to carry out theirdesign responsibilities. In conventional design environments, thedifferent design domains typically are segregated such that inter-domaincommunication typically is conducted via in-person meetings or via emailcommunications. This inefficient communication strategy can negativelyaffect the quality of the designs and can limit the productivity of thedesigners. It often is the case that the design requirements generatedfrom each domain that affect the other domains are out-of-sync,inconsistent, or incomplete. Without effective collaboration, there issubstantial effort by the designers to catch-up to the current state ineach domain.

To address this issue, the present disclosure describes a design systemthat implements a unified data schema to link product planning data(including volume planning or “take-rate” data), ECU/devices, in-vehiclecommunications, and vehicle harness information together with respect toarchitectural relation, performance relation, and cost relation. Thedomain-specific information from each domain is converted to objects inthis unified data schema and stored in a unified database that isaccessible to every domain, so that the impact of the current state inthe device domain can be accessed and analyzed by a designer from, forexample, the harness domain. Thus, once imported into the unifieddatabase, the object-oriented approach of the unified database enablesdesign data sharing and collaboration between different E/Edesign/development teams and domains, thereby facilitating therealization of design data collaboration, design change management, andproduct lifetime management (PLM) and product data management (PDM)implementation into each object level.

The unified database, in one embodiment, uses an object-orientedapproach to represent each component in the E/E architecture of avehicle platform, including: ECU/device specifications; logical harnessdesign information, physical harness design information; in-vehiclenetwork information; power/ground distribution; and inline connectivity.The unified schema objects of the database link the components togetherbased on their logical and physical relationships. The linkedrelationships represented in the unified database facilitates designcollaboration, design change management, and product optimizationbetween different design domains throughout the vehicle platform.

In at least one embodiment, the computer aided design (CAD) systemimplementing the unified database uses graphical user interface (GUI) tofacilitate the design collaboration between domains. The use of the GUIto graphically present relationships between components of the E/Earchitecture, to graphically present the impacts of changes within theE/E architecture at every object level, and to graphically present thesimulated performance characteristics of the E/E architecture permitsthe designers to rapidly assess and modify the E/E architecture in acollaborative manner to achieve a higher-quality E/E architecturedesign.

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic 100 of a simplified representation of theelectrical/electronic (E/E) architecture of an automobile 102 inaccordance with at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Theelectrical configuration of the automobile 102 includes a plurality ofdevices interconnected via one or more harnesses and network busses. Inthe depicted simplified example, the plurality of devices includesheadlamp assemblies 104 and 105, tail lamp assemblies 106 and 107, atrunk latch actuator 108, door latch actuators 110 and 111, power windowswitch assemblies 112 and 113, instrument panel gauge 114, instrumentpanel heating/cooling control panel 116, navigation display 118, enginesensor 120 (e.g., an oxygen sensor), engine control unit 121 (e.g., anignition ECU), and the like. The harnesses include a front headlampharness 130, an engine harness 132, an instrument panel harness 134, aleft door harness 136, a right door harness 137, and a rear headlampharness 138. The electrical configuration also includes a body networkbus 140 (e.g., a controller area network (CAN) bus). In the example ofFIG. 1, the front headlamp harness 130 is connected to the headlamps 104and 105 and connected to the body network bus 140 via an inline 142. Theengine harness 132 is connected to the engine sensor 120 and the enginecontrol unit 121 and connected to the instrument panel harness 134 viaan inline 144. The instrument panel harness 134 is connected to theinstrument panel gauge 114, the instrument panel heating/cooling controlpanel 116, and the navigation display 118 and connected to the bodynetwork bus 140 via an inline 146. The left door harness 136 isconnected to the door latch actuator 110 and the power window switchassembly 112 and connected to the body network bus 140 via an inline148. The right door harness 137 is connected to the door latch actuator111 and the power window switch assembly 113 and connected to the bodynetwork bus 140 via an inline 149. The rear headlamp harness 138 isconnected to the rear headlamps 106 and 107 and the trunk latch actuator108 and connected to the body network bus 140 via an inline 150.

The components of the electrical configuration further can be logicallyorganized into various subsystems. To illustrate, the headlamps 104 and105 and the front headlamp harness 130 can be logically grouped as afront headlamp subsystem, and the instrument panel harness 134, theinstrument panel gauge 114, the instrument panel heating/cooling controlpanel 116, and the navigation display 118 can be logically grouped as aninstrument panel subsystem, etc.

The addition, removal, or modification of a component of the electricalconfiguration of the automobile 102 can result in widespread changes toother components. To illustrate, the addition of a power sunroof to theautomobile 102 can result in, for example, the addition of at least amotor actuator, a control switch, and either a new harness or a newsplice into an existing harness or network bus. As another example,transfer of one function from one ECU to another ECU can result in achange in the number or configuration of circuits in one or moreharnesses or network busses, the addition or removal of a harness ornetwork bus, a change in the processing performance requirements of anECU, and the like. FIGS. 2-64 below illustrate GUI-assisted techniquesto allow automotive designers to manage the electrical configuration ofthe automobile 102.

FIG. 2 illustrates a system 200 for facilitating vehicleelectrical/electronic (E/E) configuration design collaboration inaccordance with at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Thesystem 200 includes an E/E system server 202, a domain level platform204, and a plurality of domain-specific agents for each design domain,including a vehicle subsystem agent 206, a vehicle ECU agent 207, avehicle software agent 208, a vehicle network agent 209, and a vehicleharness agent 210 (collectively, “the domain agents 206-210”).

The domain-level platform 204 implements the domain-specific designtools and domain-specific design data created, manipulated, andimplemented by the domain designers. The design tools of thedomain-level platform 204 can include subsystem design tools 212, ECUdesign tools 213, software design tools 214, network design tools 215,and harness design tools 216. In the network domain, some examplenetwork design tools include the DaVinci Network Designer, CANoe, andLIN Network Architect applications. In the ECU domain, common designtools include the DaVinci Tool Suite, MATLAB, Simulink/Stateflow, andRational Rhaphsody applications. In the harness design domain, exampledesign tools include the Zuken, Saber Cable, CAPH, AutoCAD, and CATIAapplications. The data manipulated by these tools can include subsystemdesign data 218, ECU design data 219, software design data 220, networkdesign data 221, and harness design data 222. The domain-level platform204 further can include product planning data, such as the differentbuilds of the vehicle, the projected number of sales of each build, pastsales history for each build, available features (options or “salescodes”), exclusivity between features or devices, implementation costs,budgetary constraints, and the like.

The E/E system server 202 includes server-side software 230 and acollaboration database 232. The server-side software 230 is configuredto facilitate communications between the various domain agents 206-210,including communicating changes made to the E/E configuration in onedomain agent to the other domain agents. As discussed in greater detailbelow, a copy of a unified database resides at each domain agent,whereby the E/E architecture data is imported from domain-specificdesign tool format into a unified data schema. This data and therelationships between components represented by the data are stored inthe collaboration database 232. In at least one embodiment, the datastored in the collaboration database 232 is organized by vehicle projectand is based on a different data schema than the domain agent unifieddata schema. The collaboration database 232 enables the multiple domainagents to pull from and save to a common data repository for aparticular vehicle project. Standard revision control processes canapply to the data stored in the collaboration database 232.Collaboration is facilitated when the workflow engines are overlaid onthe data transactions. To illustrate, when a domain agent uploads datathat has been modified, the workflow engines will automatically notifythe appropriate users that the data has changed. Any changes to the dataand the impact of the changes is recognized when the data is pulled downinto the domain agents unified database. For example; when a domainagent downloads a modified product plan, the domain agent automaticallydisplays, via a GUI, the differences in the product plan as compared towhat was stored in the local copy of the unified database of the domainagent. Once the domain agent accepts the “new” data, the domain agent,via the GUI, displays the impact of the new product plan to thedesigner's particular design domain. Thus, a characteristic of thiscollaboration process is that all domain agents are working off of thesame version of the data contained in the collaboration database 232 atthe E/E system server 202. This process avoids the conventional designpractice whereby the different design domains have different design datarepositories and thus it is common to find that some of the designersare working on “stale” data and therefore design issues that could arisefrom the “fresh” data are not uncovered till late in the design process.The collaboration database 232 ensures that the designers aresynchronized on the latest set of data.

Each of the domain agents 206-210 is configured to interface with theE/E system server 202 in collaborating in the design of the E/Earchitecture for a vehicle. The collaboration process can includespecifying an initial E/E architecture, modifying various aspects of theE/E architecture, modeling the signal routing of the E/E architecture,modeling the signaling performance of the E/E architecture, and thelike. In at least one embodiment, this collaborative process isfacilitated through the use of a graphical user interface (GUI)implemented by the software of each domain agent. The GUI-facilitatedcollaborative design process is described in greater detail herein withrespect to FIGS. 4-64.

The domain-specific data of the domain-level platform 204 typically hasa particular format in accordance with the domain-specific tools thatutilize the domain-specific data. To illustrate, the ECU design data 219may be formatted for use by a particular ECU design tool 213. Thesedomain-specific formats for the data can impede information sharingbetween domain agents. Accordingly, to facilitate the designcollaboration process, the data of each design domain is formatted inaccordance with a unified data scheme and the resulting reformatted datais combined into a unified data base 234, a copy if which is storedlocally at each domain agent. In one embodiment, the unified data schemeis an object-oriented model employing schemas for the various designcomponents. To illustrate, the unified data scheme can include ECUschema, device schema, signal schema, circuit schema, medium schema,functional model schema, and physical harness schema.

The ECU schema includes information related to ECU architecture, such asphysical input/output (I/O) connections, logical I/O connections, ECUhardware information, ECU software architecture information, functioncontext and implementation information, as well as layer formats, suchas formats for the hardware layer, the transport layer, the softwareapplication layer, etc. The device schema is similar to the ECU schema,with the exception that the functional context and implementationinformation will be represented in the context of hardware. The signalschema includes information related to each signal implemented in theE/E architecture. The signal schema acts as a placeholder for the basicdefinition of the signal, such as signal name, signal type, etc. Eachsignal instance is a connection between function instances. Each signalinstance typically should have only one sender (signal initiator) and atleast one receiver (signal consumer). The function schema includesinformation related to functions implemented in the E/E architecture.Each instance of a function is represented by a function model. Thefunction model describes the behavior of the function, such as input(signals), output (signals), signal generation process, signal latencyrequirements, etc. The medium schema represents both the wire harnessconnections and any in-vehicle network bus connection and serves torepresent the implementation of the signal instances. Instances of themedium schema typically include information indicating the device(s) orECU(s) to which the medium is connected, the signal delay requirementfor the medium, the implementation method, and if the medium is aharness, the harness connector and circuit (wire) information. Thus, itwill be appreciated that a medium instance can include more than onesignal instance. The circuit schema represents the implementation of theharnesses. A circuit instance represents the aspects of one or morecircuits (or wires), including a list of the harness connector pins, alist of circuits, and a list of splices. Typically, there should be aone-to-one mapping between logical signal instances and circuitinstances. The physical harness schema represents the design informationrelated to the physical implementation of a harness, including thecircuits, splices, and harness connector information for the physicalharness instance. An example listing of unified data scheme schemas islisted in Appendix A.

FIG. 3 illustrates a processing system 300 in accordance with at leastone embodiment of the present disclosure. The processing system 300 caninclude a set of instructions that can be executed to manipulate theprocessing system 300 to perform any one or more of the methods orfunctions disclosed herein. The processing system 300 may operate as astandalone device or may be connected, e.g., using a network, to otherprocessing systems or peripheral devices. The processing system 300 canrepresent an implementation of a domain agent (e.g., domain agents206-210 of FIG. 2), an implementation of the E/E system server 202 (FIG.2), or both. While a single processing system 300 is illustrated, theterm “system” shall also be taken to include any collection of systemsor sub-systems that individually or jointly execute a set, or multiplesets, of instructions to perform one or more computer functions toimplement one or more processes described herein.

The processing system 300 may include one or more processors 302, whichcan include, for example, a single-core or multiple-core centralprocessing unit (CPU). Moreover, the processing system 300 can include amain memory 304 and a static memory 306 that can communicate with eachother via a bus 308. As shown, the processing system 300 may furtherinclude a video display unit 310, such as a liquid crystal display(LCD), an organic light emitting diode (OLED), a flat panel display, asolid state display, or a cathode ray tube (CRT). Additionally, theprocessing system 300 may include an input device 312, such as akeyboard, and a cursor control device 314, such as a mouse. Theprocessing system 300 can also include a disk drive unit 316, a signalgeneration device 318, such as a speaker, and a network interface device320. The processing system 300 further can include a local database 330(e.g., the unified database of FIG. 2 if a domain agent or thecollaboration database 232 if the E/E system server 202), as well asbeing connected via the network 326 to a remote database 232.

In a particular embodiment, as depicted in FIG. 3, the disk drive unit316 may include a computer readable storage device 322 in which one ormore sets of instructions 324, e.g. software, can be embedded. Further,the instructions 324 may embody one or more of the methods or logic asdescribed herein. In a particular embodiment, the instructions 324 mayreside completely, or at least partially, within the main memory 304,the static memory 306, and/or within the processor 302 during executionby the processing system 300. The main memory 304 and the processor 302also may include computer readable media. The network interface device320 can provide connectivity to a network 326, e.g., a wide area network(WAN), a local area network (LAN), or other network.

In an alternative embodiment, dedicated hardware implementations such asapplication specific integrated circuits, programmable logic arrays andother hardware devices can be constructed to implement one or more ofthe methods described herein. Applications that may include theapparatus and systems of various embodiments can broadly include avariety of electronic and processing systems. One or more embodimentsdescribed herein may implement functions using two or more specificinterconnected hardware modules or devices with related control and datasignals that can be communicated between and through the modules, or asportions of an application-specific integrated circuit. Accordingly, thepresent system encompasses software, firmware, and hardwareimplementations.

In accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure, themethods described herein may be implemented, in whole or in part, bysoftware programs executable by a processing system. The presentdisclosure contemplates a computer readable storage device that includesinstructions or receives and provides instructions for executionresponsive to a propagated signal, so that a device connected to anetwork can communicate voice, video or data over the network 326.Further, the instructions 324 may be transmitted or received over thenetwork 326 via the network interface device 320.

While the computer readable storage device is shown to be a singlestorage device, the term “computer readable storage device” includes asingle storage device or multiple storage devices, such as a centralizedor distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers that storeone or more sets of instructions. The term “computer readable storagedevice” also includes any storage device that is capable of storing aset of instructions for execution by a processor or that cause aprocessing system to perform any one or more of the methods oroperations disclosed herein.

In a particular non-limiting, exemplary embodiment, the computerreadable storage device can include a solid-state memory such as amemory card or other package that houses one or more non-volatileread-only memories. Further, the computer readable storage device can bea random access memory or other volatile re-writeable memory.Additionally, the computer readable storage device can include amagneto-optical or optical medium. Accordingly, the disclosure isconsidered to include any one or more of a computer readable storagedevice or a distribution medium and other equivalents and successormedia, in which data or instructions may be stored.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example E/E architecture design process 400utilizing the system 200 of FIG. 2 in accordance with at least oneembodiment of the present disclosure. The E/E design process 400initiates at block 402 with the initial data configuration for the E/Earchitecture to be designed. In one embodiment, certain domain-specificdata from the various design domains is imported by the E/E systemserver 202 and converted to a vehicle library having the unified datascheme (and stored in the unified database 234). In at least oneembodiment, this domain-specific data is provided by the vehiclemanufacturer in a certain format, such as a spreadsheet file or acomma-delimited file. In another embodiment, the initial E/Earchitecture is created by manually inputting the various architecturecomponents via the GUI interfaces implemented by the domain agents. Toillustrate, one or more designers can individually create instances ofvarious architecture schemas, such as function instances, ECU instances,device instances, physical harness instances, etc. In yet anotherembodiment, the initial E/E architecture is created through acombination of importing domain-specific data and manual creation ofarchitectural components by designers.

It will be appreciated that the E/E architecture design process for avehicle typically is an iterative process whereby requirements andspecifications can change. Accordingly, in instances whereby new ormodified architecture information is introduced to the designenvironment, at block 404, the domain agent can utilize a GUI tographically display to a designer the ramifications of the new ormodified architecture information to the vehicle library, such as whatcomponents of the E/E architecture have been modified, which componentsare present only in the original data, which components are present onlyin the new data, etc.

At block 406, the designers can perform an initial refinement oraugmentation of the vehicle library created at block 402. To illustrate,the designers can eliminate redundant or unused components, addadditional components not represented in the imported domain-specificdata, change performance parameters, etc. The initialrefinement/augmentation process is described in greater detail hereinwith reference to FIGS. 5-25.

At block 408, the designers use the GUI provided by the design agents tocollaborate across the different design domains in revising andverifying E/E architectures for a vehicle. As illustrated in FIG. 4,this process can include simulating the operation of an E/E architectureand verifying it meets signaling and performance criteria (block 410).The architecture simulation/verification process is described herein ingreater detail with reference to FIGS. 26-37. The collaboration processfurther can include a change management process (block 412) in responseto changes made in various aspects of an E/E architecture. The changemanagement process is described in greater detail below with referenceto FIGS. 38-43. The collaboration process further can include acomplexity management process (block 414) whereby the E/E architecturecan be modified to reduce the number of vehicle variations, to reducethe number of harness builds, or a combination thereof. The complexitymanagement process is described in greater detail below with referenceto FIGS. 44-64.

The collaboration process is concluded upon determination of an E/Earchitecture that meets the specified performance, complexity, and costconstraints. The resulting E/E architecture is then finalized forimplementation in the vehicle manufacture at block 416. Thisfinalization process can include generation of comprehensivedocumentation for the various design domains so as to permit the variousdesign domains to engineer the respective components of the E/Earchitecture in accordance with the specified E/E architecture.

FIG. 5 illustrates the initial refinement/augmentation process (block406 of FIG. 4) in accordance with at least one embodiment of the presentdisclosure. The initial refinement/augmentation process can includeusing a GUI of a domain agent to add, remove, or modify devices,harnesses, ECUs, or network busses of the E/E architecture at blockD502. The initial refinement/augmentation process further can includeusing a GUI to define functions or tasks at block D504 or distributingfunctions or tasks among the ECUs and devices of the E/E architecture atblock DD06. At block D508, the designers can use a GUI to define signaland power inputs, outputs, ports, of the devices, ECUs, network bussesand harnesses of the E/E architecture. At block D510, the designer canuse a GUI to define bus signaling (i.e., transmission frames) of thenetwork busses of the E/E architecture. In certain instances, redundantor unused signaling may be present in the E/E architecture, and thus thedesigner can use a GUI to consolidate signaling at block D512. Further,a designer can use a GUI to specify performance criteria for componentsor subsystems of the E/E architecture at block D514.

FIGS. 6-9 illustrate various example GUIs that provide a top-levelgraphical representation of the components of the vehicle library inaccordance with at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG.6 is an example GUI 600 illustrating the top-level of the vehiclelibrary for an example E/E architecture. The GUI 600 includes a listpane 602 having an expandable list of the components of the vehiclelibrary, including an expandable ECU list 604 that lists the ECUspresent in the vehicle library, an expandable device list 605 that liststhe devices present in the vehicle library, an expandable function modellist 606 that lists the functions present in the vehicle library, anexpandable harness list 607 that lists the harnesses present in thevehicle library, and an expandable bus list 608 that lists the networkbusses present in the vehicle library. A user can select a particularlist to expand it to graphically display the corresponding components.To illustrate, FIG. 7 depicts an expansion of the harness list 607 tographically list a plurality of harnesses, such as a harness for thedriver door (“Door_Driver”), a harness for the instrument panel (“IP”),and the like. A user then may select one of the listed harnesses toaccess the information for the selected harness.

FIG. 8 is an example GUI 800 that graphically presents the organizationof the vehicle library by subsystem. The GUI 800 includes a list pane802 having an expanded subsystem list 804 and an expandable vehiclevariance list 806. A user can select a particular listed subsystem toaccess the information related to the selected subsystem. To illustrate,FIG. 9 illustrates a GUI 900 displayed upon selection of the“Engin26Control” subsystem from the subsystem list 804 from the GUI 800.The GUI 900 includes a list of components associated with the“Engin26Control” subsystem, each component identified by a name field902 and a component type field 904 (e.g., “device”, “ECU”, “harness”,“network bus”, etc.).

FIGS. 10-16 illustrate various example GUIs that facilitate editing ofthe ECU of the vehicle library in accordance with at least oneembodiment of the present disclosure. Similar GUIs can be implemented tofacilitate editing of devices of the vehicle library. FIGS. 10-12 areexamples of GUIs that graphically presents connections at the ECUboundary of an ECU selected from the ECU list 604 (FIG. 6). In FIG. 10,a GUI 1000 includes a list pane 1002 having an expanded powerconnections list 1004 that lists the power connections of the vehiclelibrary, an expandable ground connections list 1005 that lists theground connections of the vehicle library, and an expandable busconnections list 1006 that lists the connections of the network buses ofthe vehicle library. The GUI 1000 further includes an information pane1008 that graphically presents certain information about an itemselected in the list pane 1002. To illustrate, a user's selection of the“HDLP_Dash_GENERIC_BATT_FEED_(—)34” power connection from the powerconnections list 1004 can result in the display in the information pane1008 of the circuit name (“A934”), a description of the circuit function(“GENERIC BATT FEED 34”), the circuit group (“PWR”), the default wiregauge (“10”), the name of the harness in which the power connection isimplemented (“HDLP_Dash”), the connector name (“Virtual”), etc. Asimilar GUI can be provided to list the harness to which the ECU isconnected, the particular circuits of each listed harness, and tographically present information about a harness circuit selected fromthe harness list. In FIG. 11, a GUI 1100 includes a list pane 1102having an expanded network bus list 1104 that lists the network buses towhich the ECU is connected, and the particular logical signals (frames)which are to be received from or provided to the corresponding networkbus. The GUI 1100 further includes an information pane 1108 thatgraphically presents certain information about an item selected in thelist pane 1102. To illustrate, upon selection of a frame “CANC CAMERA”from the network bus list 1106, the information pane 1108 is used todisplay frame information for the selected bus connector, including theframe ID (“1789”), the frame name (“NET_CFG:”), the frame length (“8”bytes), the frame type (“normal”), the sender (or source) of the frame(“CANC-FCMCGW”) and a pull-down list of receivers of the frame(“CANC-DIESEL_D” etc.). FIG. 12 illustrates a GUI 1200 whereby aninformation pane 1208 is used to display transmission (“Tx”) propertiesfor the frame “CANC CAMERA” selected from the network bus list 1106 froma list pane 1202, including the number of transmission retries to beperformed by the ECU (“1”), the transmission type (“periodic”), theperiodic cycle of the transmission of the frame (“2000” milliseconds) atthe ECU, and the like. The user may edit the information presented inthe information panes of the GUIs 1000, 1100, and 1200 using the inputfields of the corresponding information pane.

FIG. 13 is an example GUI 1300 that graphically presents all of thesignals input to or output from the ECU, the port through which acorresponding signal is received or output, and the specified delays ofthe signals at the ECU. The GUI 1300 includes an input signal pane 1302that graphically depicts an input signal list 1304 that lists thelogical and physical signals input to the ECU and the port through whichit is received and an output signal pane 1306 that graphically depictsan output signal list 1308 that lists the logical and physical signaloutput from the ECU and the port through which it is output. Further,the ECU may be used to forward signals and thus the GUI 1300 can includea forwarded signal pane 1310 that lists signals forwarded by the ECU,where each forwarded signal listed includes an input port field 1312indicating the port of the ECU which receives the signal and an inputsignal field 1314 identifying the input signal, an output port field1316 identifying the port the ECU uses to transmit the signal, an outputsignal field 1318 identifying the output signal, and a specified delayfield 1320 specifying the expected delay introduced by the ECU whileforwarding the signal. These characteristics can be edited via the GUI1300.

FIG. 14 is an example GUI 1400 that graphically presents the functionmodels assigned to the ECU. The GUI 1400 includes a list pane 1402 thatdisplays a function model list 1404 of the function models and aninformation pane 1408 that displays information associated with aselected function model, such as the function name (e.g., “CANBsig2msg”), the function model, the implementation mode (e.g., whetherimplemented in software or hardware), the execution penalty (i.e., thenumber of execution cycles of the ECU needed to perform the function),the name of the scheduler associated with the function, the taskassociated with the function, whether it is an interrupt-type task, theperiod it takes to execute the task (e.g., 16 milliseconds), thepriority of the task, and the execution order, which is defined by theuser and is a priori.

FIG. 15 is an example GUI 1500 that graphically presents the softwarearchitecture of the ECU. The GUI 1500 includes a list pane 1502 thatdisplays an expandable task list 1504 that lists the schedulers of theECU and their corresponding tasks. The GUI 1500 further includes aninformation pane 1508 that displays information related to a schedulerselected from the task list 1504. The information can include the nameof the scheduler (e.g., “Mod_IPM_SCH”), the clock speed of the scheduler(e.g., “8” MHz), the clock jitter, the task queue size of the scheduler,the interrupt nesting size, the initial state of the scheduler (e.g.,“alive” or “asleep”), the power-up delay of the scheduler, the wake-updelay of the scheduler, and any signals used to wake up the scheduler.These characteristics can be edited via the GUI 1500.

FIG. 16 is an example GUI 1600 having an information pane 1608 tographically present information related to a task selected from the tasklist 1504 in the list pane 1502. This information can include, forexample, the task name (e.g., “Starter sig2ms44task”), the priority ofthe task, the software penalty (i.e., the number of cycles needed by theECU to execute the task), whether the task is an interrupt, whether thetasks is pre-emptive, and the number of cycles needed by the ECU torecover from an interrupt while performing the task.

FIGS. 17-20 illustrate various example GUIs that facilitate editing of anetwork bus of the vehicle library in accordance with at least oneembodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 17 is an example GUI 1700having a list pane 1702 displaying an expandable ECU list 1704 of ECUsconnected to the network bus and displaying an expandable frame list1705 of frames transmitted via the network bus. The GUI 1700 alsoincludes an information pane 1708 that displays general informationabout the network bus, such as the bus name, the bus type (e.g., CAN,LIN, etc.), and the bus throughput (baud rate). The GUI 1700 further caninclude a list pane 1710 listing the frames and their arbitrationdelays. For a selected frame, a list pane 1712 can display a logicalsignal list 1714 of the logical signals transmitted in the frame and alist pane 1716 can display a list of the sending component and thereceiving components of the frame. FIG. 18 is an example GUI 1800 havingan information pane 1808 to display various performance parameters forthe network bus for simulation/verification purposes. These performanceparameters can include, for example, the throughput of the network bus,the initial state of the network bus (i.e., “alive” or “sleep”), and thevarious performance parameters of the network protocol implemented forthe network bus. These parameters can be edited by a user via the GUI1800.

FIG. 19 is an example GUI 1900 having a list pane 1902 that displays alist of the logical signals transmitted via the network bus and aninformation pane 1908 to display signal delay requirement informationfor the signal, including the required maximum end-to-end delay (asspecified by the designer) and the actual end-to-end delay of the signalas determined using a simulation process described in greater detailbelow.

FIG. 20 is an example GUI 2000 having a list pane 2002 that displays aframe list 2004 of the frames transmitted by the network bus and thelogical signals transmitted in each listed frame. The GUI 2000 furtherincludes an information pane 2008 that displays information related to aselected frame, including the frame ID, the frame name, the frame length(e.g., 6 bytes), the frame type, the sender of the frame, the one ormore receivers of the frame. The displayed information further caninclude transmission properties regarding the frame, such as the numberof transmission retries to be attempted, the transmission type (e.g.,periodic, periodic when triggered, etc.), the periodic cycle, and thetrigger delay. This information can be modified via the GUI 2000.

FIGS. 21-25 illustrate various example GUIs that facilitate editing ofsignals of the vehicle library in accordance with at least oneembodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 21 is an example GUI 2100having a list pane 2102 to display a signal list 2104 of the signals(logical and physical) of the vehicle library and an information pane2108 to display general information for a selected signal, including thesignal group to which the signal belongs, the name of the signal, thetype of signal (e.g., analog, digital, logical, Boolean, integer, etc.),the initial or default value or state (e.g., logic “0” or logic “1”) ofthe signal, the senders of the signal, the receivers of the signal, andthe circuit or frame used to transmit the signal. FIG. 22 is an exampleGUI 2200 for displaying the connections for a signal selected from thesignal list 2104 of the GUI 2100. The GUI 2200 lists an entry for eachcomponent connection for the selected signal. Each entry includes amedium field 2202 identifying the component, a frame ID/circuit field2204 identifying the frame ID (if the selected signal is a logicalsignal) or the circuit ID (if the selected signal is a physical signal),a connection name field 2206 to identify the name of the connection, anode field 2208 to identify the node, and a receiver field 2210identifying whether the component of the connection is a receiver orsender of the signal.

In certain instances, designers in different design domains may give thesame signal different names, and thus when the domain-specific data isimported into the unified database, there may be multiple instances ofthe same signal, albeit with different signal names. FIG. 23 is anexample GUI 2300 to facilitate the consolidation of duplicate orredundant signals into a single signal instance in the unified database.The GUI 2300 includes a list pane 2302 that displays a signal list 2304of the signals of the vehicle library and a selected signal pane 2306that displays a signal list 2308 of signals selected from the signallist 2304 (via, e.g., an add button 2310) for consolidation. The GUI2300 further includes an information pane 2312 that lists theconnections that will be affected if the selected signals areconsolidated. Once a user has selected signals for consolidation andsignaled that the selected signals should be consolidated (via, e.g., aconsolidate button 2316), the GUI 2300 displays a dialog box 2316 thatlists possible signal names for the user to select to be assigned to theresulting consolidated signal.

FIG. 24 is an example GUI 2400 for setting the senders and receivers ofa selected signal. The GUI 2400 displays a list of components serve as asender or receiver of the signal. Each entry of the list includes anidentifier field 2402, a sender selection field 2404 to indicate whetherthe component is a sender of the signal, a receiver field 2406 toindicate whether the component is a receiver of the signal, and a delayfield 2408 to indicate the time required (e.g., the worst case latencyfor the signal to reach its destination or the processing time requiredfor processing the signal in a node before it is transmitted orre-transmitted, etc.). In one embodiment, a user can add a component tothe list as a sender by selecting an add sender button 2410 or as areceiver by selecting an add receiver button 2412, whereby selection ofone of the buttons 2410 or 2412 brings up a dialog box that listspotential components for addition to the list.

FIG. 25 is an example GUI 2500 for configuring the routing path of aselected signal. As illustrated by the GUI 2500, the designer can definethe route of the signal trough manipulation of the tree structure. Ateach step of the tree structure, the user can choose the next leg of theroute. Thus, the complete path from point A to point D is not shown.Rather, when the user selects point A, the user is shown the choices forpoint B. Once the user selects a choice for point B, the choices forpoint C are shown, and so on, until the point D is chosen, therebysetting the path for the signal.

FIG. 26 illustrates the E/E architecture simulation/verification process(block 410 of FIG. 4) in accordance with at least one embodiment of thepresent disclosure. During the E/E architecture simulation/verificationprocess, the designers from the various design domains can utilize theirrespective domain agents to simulate the performance of varioussubsystems or the overall E/E architecture so as to verify that thedesigned E/E architecture meets the designated performance criteria. Theperformance criteria can include, for example, defined maximumend-to-end times for some or all of the signals, maximum loading for theECUs, devices, and network buses, task throughput, and the like.

As part of the E/E architecture simulation/verification process, thedomain agent can provide various GUIs to facilitate the display of aschematic view of a selected subsystem topology or vehicle variancetechnology at block 2602. This schematic view allows the designer torapidly verify the connections between components of the subsystem orvehicle variance. Further, at block 2604, the domain agent can provide aGUI to the user to permit the user to view and edit the performanceparameters and criteria of the components of the selected subsystem orvehicle variance. At block E06, the domain agent can use a GUI tofacilitate the display of a schematic view of the internal high-levelconfiguration of certain components of the subsystem, such as aschematic view of the relationships between functions and tasks of anECU. The domain agent further can provide a GUI to provide a graphicalview of the signal routing/tracing within a selected subsystem orvehicle variance at block 2608.

Once a designer has specified the performance parameters for the variouscomponents of a subsystem or vehicle variance and has defined theperformance criteria for the subsystem or vehicle variance, the designercan use GUIs provided by the domain agent to simulate the performance ofthe subsystem or vehicle variance to confirm that the design meets thespecified performance criteria at block 2610. In the event that theperformance criteria are not met, and thus necessitating furtherrefinement of the design of the selected subsystem or vehicle variance.At block 2612 the designer can further refine the architecture of thesubsystem or vehicle variance using the domain agent in an effort todesign an architecture that meets the performance criteria. Thisrefinement can include, for example, redistributing tasks and functionsamong the ECUs and devices, repartitioning the distribution of tasks andfunctions between hardware implementation and software implementation,changing the physical routing of certain signals, and the like. Theprocesses of blocks 2602, 2604, 2606, 2608, and 2610 can be used for therefinement of the E/E architecture.

FIGS. 27-37 illustrate various example GUIs that can be implemented by adomain agent to facilitate the E/E architecture simulation/verificationprocess of FIG. 26 in accordance with at least one embodiment of thepresent disclosure. FIG. 27 is an example GUI 2700 that provides atop-level view of a selected subsystem. The GUI 2700 includes a listpane 2702 that displays a component list 2704 of the components of thevehicle library that are implemented as part of the selected subsystem,including the ECUs, devices, harnesses, and network busses, as well aslisting the components that serve as sources of signals and thecomponents that serve as consumers of signals in the selected subsystem.The GUI 2700 further includes an information pane 2708 that identifiesthe subsystem name and the type (i.e., “subsystem” or “vehiclevariance”).

FIG. 28 is a GUI 2800 that provides a schematic view of the topology ofthe selected subsystem. The GUI 2800 includes a schematic pane 2802 usedto display a topology schematic 2804 of the selected subsystem. Asillustrated in FIG. 28, the topology schematic 2804 describes theconnections between the components of the subsystem, and utilizesdifferent designators to identify the different component types. Toillustrate, the harnesses and network busses of the topology areidentified using a circular icon, whereby the icon includes the letter“H” if it represents a harness or the letter “B” if it represents anetwork bus. The ECUs and devices of the subsystem topology aredesignated using a square icon, whereby the icon includes the letter “D”if it represents a device or the letter “E” if it represents an ECU. Thegraphical display of the topology of the selected subsystem afforded bythe GUI 2800 allows a designer to rapidly comprehend and verify theconnections between components of the selected subsystem. The domainagent generates the topology schematic 2804 based on the relationshipsand connections between the components of the selected subsystem asindicated by the data in the local copy of the unified database at thedomain agent. As discussed above, information regarding therelationships and connections between the components can be importedfrom one or more files, the designer can use one or more of the GUIsdescribed to create, modify, or delete relationship and connectioninformation between the components, or a combination thereof.

Further, in at least one embodiment, the GUI 2800 is configured suchthat the user can select the icon representing a component to accessadditional information regarding the component. FIG. 29 is an exampleGUI 2900 that is displayed upon selection of the “Sw_Ignition” deviceicon from the GUI 2800 of FIG. 28. In the depicted example, variouseditable operational information regarding the “Sw_Ignition” device isdisplayed, including the power type and ground type to which the deviceis connected, the part number (PN) of the device, the name of thedevice, the name of subsystem to which the device belongs, the devicetype, and certain expected operating parameters for the device, such asthe ambient temperature and humidity the device is expected to besubjected to, the minimum and maximum operating voltage that the devicecan operate as expected, and the like. The user can edit some or all ofthis information using the GUI 2900. FIG. 30 is an example GUI 3000 forgraphically presenting the internal configuration of the selectedcomponent, which in the depicted example is the internal configurationof the “Sw_Ignition” device. The GUI 3000 includes a configuration pane3004 in which an internal topology schematic 3004 is displayed tographically present the relationships between functions and softwareapplications of the “Sw_Ignition” device. To illustrate, the internaltopology schematic 3004 indicates that the “Sw_Ignition” device includesthree functions: “IP IO”; “IP msg2sig”; and “IP sig2msg”, eachrepresented by a square icon having the letter “F”, and includes asoftware application “Sw_Ignition_AppFunc” represented by a square iconhaving a letter “A”. The internal topology schematic 3004 furtherindicates that the “IP IO” function receives signaling from the “IP”harness and provides a signal to the “IP msg2sig” function, that the “IPmsg2sig” function generates three signals that are input to the“Sw_Ignition_AppFunc”, that the “Sw_ignition_AppFunc” generates a signalthat is input to the “IP sig2msg” function, and that the “IP sig2msg”function generates a signal that is output to the “IP” harness.

FIGS. 31 and 32 illustrate example GUIs implemented by a domain agent tographically present signal tracing information for a selected signalwithin a selected subsystem. FIG. 31 is an example GUI 3100 having aschematic pane 3102 that graphically depicts a signal routing schematic3104 for the selected signal. The signal routing schematic 3104illustrates the one or more end-to-end paths of the selected signalthrough the subsystem as determined by the domain agent based on therelationships and connections between the components of the subsystemsas represented in local copy of the unified database. In the example ofFIG. 31, the signal trace for a signal “IGNITION_RUN/START_SW_SENSE” isdepicted by the signal routing schematic 3104, whereby the signal isgenerated by the “Sw_Ignition” device, whereupon it is transmitted tothe “Mod_Cluster-CCN” ECU via circuit “G20” of the “IP” harness. The“Mod_Cluster-CCN” ECU provides the signal to the “CANB 0” network bus.From the “CANB 0” network bus, the signal is provided to the“Mod_HI5translator” ECU, which consumes the signal for one or more tasksor functions. The signal is also provided from the “CANB 0” network busto the “Mod_ESP-25E” ECU via the “CANC 584” network bus. The“Mod_ESP-25E” ECU consumes the signal for one or more tasks orfunctions. Thus, the “Sw_Ignition” device serves as the source of thesignal and the ““Mod_HI5translator” ECU and the “Mod_ESP-25E” serve asthe end destinations of the signal. In order to determine the signallatency at any component along the signal trace path represented by thesignal routing schematic 3104, the user can select the icon representingthe component to direct the domain agent to display the GUI 3200 of FIG.32. The GUI 3200 includes a field indicating the specified or desiredmaximum signal latency from initial transmission from the source to theselected component (“Expected Delay at Sink”). The GUI 3200 furtherincludes a field indicating the actual signal latency from initialtransmission from the source to the selected component (“Actual Delay atSink”) as determined from the subsystem simulation process described ingreater detail below. To illustrate, the GUI 3200 represents the GUIinitiated upon the selection of the “Mod_ESP-25E” ECU, which indicatesthat the actual signal latency of 236.06 milliseconds exceeds theexpected signal latency of 100 milliseconds, thereby indicating to theuser that the architecture of the subsystem will need to be refined toimprove the actual signal latency, such as by modifying the physicalrouting of the signal, by giving the signal a higher processingpriority, by reassigning the functions or tasks that consume the signalto another component further upstream in the signal trace, etc.

As discussed above, the domain agent can utilize the configurations ofthe components of a subsystem, their relationships and connections, andtheir performance parameters as indicated by the local copy of theunified database to simulate the operation of the subsystem for someperiod or duration. In at least one embodiment, a commercially availablesimulator is used for simulation, the results of which are provided forrapid understanding via graphical display on a GUI. In one embodiment,the simulator is the SystemC Simulator kernel, whereby the simulationmodels are developed in SystemC language. It will be appreciated thatSystemC is both a description language and a simulation kernel. Thewritten code compiles together with a corresponding library's simulationkernel to give an executable that behaves like the herein-describedmodel when it is run. One characteristic of this simulation kernel isthe ability to simulate concurrent processes or multiple threads with apre-emptive scheduler. This enables a more realistic simulation ofsystem (e.g., the vehicle communication networks where multiple nodes(ECUs) are concurrently executing software resulting is concurrentmessages being sent on the networks). The simulation “deck” orenvironmental setup and model parameters are generated using the GUI ofthe associated domain agent. While the simulation is running, theresults are captured in a data file for post processing. The postprocessing and display of the results of the simulation is done via theGUI and display screens in the domain agent. A simulation reportdetailing the results can be generated in, for example, hypertext markuplanguage (HTML).

The models used in the simulation, in one embodiment, are describedusing the SystemC language, and captured in the library format. Themodels are parameterized and generic in nature to enable a vast numberof scenarios to be tailored via the parameters. The libraries used forthe network demonstration simulation can include: a hardware block modelof a CAN controller (generic mail box based and specific MSCAN-basedstandard automotive CAN specification); a hardware block model for LIN;a LIN bus model emulating the bus protocol behavior based on automotivestandard LIN specifications; a CAN bus model emulating CAN protocolbehavior including the bit-level arbitration at message level; a gatewaymodel emulating a gateway between two networks (e.g., a gateway betweena high speed CAN network and a medium speed CAN or LIN network on thevehicle) whereby the translation delays are represented for translatingthe signal from one network/protocol to the other (the gateway model canalso be represented by a generic ECU model whereby the software tasksfor translation can be defined in more detail); a ECU hardwareperformance model emulating a generic microcontroller performance basedon delays due to memory accesses, average instruction cycle time,power-up delays, interrupt latencies, and the like; an ECU softwareperformance model emulating the software task execution times; an ECUpre-emptive scheduler model emulating the operating system (OS) taskingstructure; event models emulating the generation of signals or events ona periodic and a priori basis; and error models emulating statisticalinjection of errors into the simulation. The models are instrumentedwith code to capture performance metrics, error logs and other data thatmay be required for analysis later.

The software architecture for each node is built up through softwaretasks. Those task are mapped to a CPU model based on their executioncycle time and priority of the execution. At any time, the penalty ofthe hardware can be represented as time delay and the penalty of thesoftware task can be represented as execution time. The CPU model undereach node is a preemptive priority-based scheduler, with which thehigher priority task can interrupt the lower priority tasks. Modelingvehicle communication protocols is the key for vehicle networksimulation. The capability of modeling network buses is fundamental tovehicle network simulation. The features included in a network protocolmodel can include: bus arbitration, bus load monitoring; tracing ofmessage behavior; random error frame injection (passive and active); andrandom overload frame injection. ECU hardware models can be createdbased on a priority-based pre-emptive scheduler. A microcontroller (MCU)architecture can be mapped to each node in terms of execution time ofeach instructions/tasks. The fine-tuned execution time due to differentkind of methods of memory access and penalty of interrupts can also bemapped into the model. Based on this hardware model, software taskingcan be created and priority of each tasking can be assigned tomanipulate Operating System (OS) for the node. Further, a variety ofdetails for MCU performances can be specified, such as cycle counts fora particular instruction, a subroutine, or a task. The event/signalmodels are parameterized and via the GUI the designer can define thetype, duration, periodicity, units etc of the signals or events. In thisillustration—the switch activation for positioning the mirror wasdescribed.

When all the parameters are described for simulation of a particularscenario—the simulation kernel is invoked via a GUI—the designer isprompted to enter the simulation time in a time unit (e.g.,milliseconds), which determines how long the simulation will run(representing elapsed real time). Based on memory capacity and assumingthe base timing (tick) to be in the microseconds, typical simulationruns are seconds long. Depending on the granularity of the resultsrequired, the base tick of the simulation could be increasedmilliseconds to get longer simulation runs. The simulation toolautomatically creates the required data structures to be fed into thesimulation and the simulation executes. At the completion of thesimulation, a post analysis GUI is invoked and the designer can view andanalyze the results of the simulation or generate detailed reports.

The outputs of the simulation provide rich sets of information regardingvehicle network behaviors (bus traffic, message latency, average busload, etc.), node behaviors (CPU load, hardware delays, etc.) andcommunication task behaviors (tasking time, software filtering,interrupt, etc.). This information is invaluable for vehiclecommunication network architects for debugging and optimizing thenetwork architecture strategy before the vehicle is built.

The post processing tool can provide the following types of information:information of CAN/LIN bus (e.g., the average bus utilization can beviewed over a sliding time window); information for a node on a bus(e.g., average CPU utilization over sliding time window, task penalties,impact of the scheduler on CPU load); and information for a message(e.g., latency of each message and the components of the overalllatency, tracing the signal/message through the topology and thesoftware tasks, impact of scheduling on message latencies).

At the vehicle level, this simulation environment has the capability tosimulate the entire network or networks at varying degrees of detail,which enables the vehicle manufacturer to study network behaviors veryearly in the design stage long before the vehicle is built. Thesenetwork behaviors can include, for example, network errors, networkefficiencies, message latencies, efficiencies of frame packing, messageprioritization, bus bandwidth utilization. The simulation environmentalso permits the designers to understand integration and interaction ofthe different networks at a vehicle level, as well as analyze, specify,and validate response of a distributed system that operates over one ormore networks and one or more ECUs. Further, the simulation environmentcan assist the designers in understanding gateway placement issues, suchas CPU bandwidth requirements, task time requirements, scheduler timingrequirements, validation of network management strategy, and potentialuse in design/validation of distributed systems.

The CPU performance of each node also can play a substantial role inmaximizing the CPU utilization while guaranteeing the requiredperformance. The simulation environment can provide the first handinformation on the CPU load due to the tasks performing communicationactivities. With an effective OS model (e.g., OSEK) and task schedulingrunning on the OS, this setup can also be used to analyze theperformance of an OS and the efficiency of the scheduler. At each node,this setup allows designers to explore the trade offs between hardwareand software tasks, evaluate the performance of CPU, OS, and schedulerunder the “real traffic” of the network.

FIGS. 33-37 illustrate example GUIs for configuring the simulation of aselected subsystem and graphically presenting the simulation results toa user in accordance with at least one embodiment of the presentdisclosure. FIG. 33 is an example GUI 3300 used to configure asimulation to be performed for a selected subsystem. The GUI 3300includes fields to identify the director and file to which thesimulation results are to be stored, a duration filed 3302 in which theuser can indicate the duration of the simulation, a simulation outputpane 3304 in which simulation results or messages can be displayed, anda simulate button 3306 to activate the simulation tool. FIG. 34 is anexample GUI 3400 to graphically display simulation results. The GUI 3400includes a list pane 3402 that displays a component list 3404 of thecomponents of the subsystem for which there are simulation results. TheGUI 3400 further includes a simulation results pane 3408 to displaysimulation results for component selected from the component list 3404.In the example of FIG. 34, the simulation results pane 3408 displays asimulated utilization chart for the “CANB” network bus of the“Ignition_Control” subsystem, where the utilization chart shows the load(%) of the “CANB” network over the 400 millisecond simulation period.FIG. 35 is another example of the GUI 3400 whereby the simulationresults pane 3408 displays a simulated utilization for the centralprocessing unit (CPU) or “core” of the “Mod_Cluster-CCN” ECU selectedfrom the component list 3404. FIG. 36 is another example of the GUI 3400whereby the simulation results pane 3408 displays a dynamic messagelatency for a message “ms442” processed by the “Mod_Cluster-CCN” ECUselected from the component list 3404. FIG. 37 is yet another example ofthe GUI 3400 whereby the simulation results pane 3408 displays a signalmessage latency for periodic instances of a signal “si440” processed bythe “Mod_ESP-2E” ECU selected from the component list 3404.

The results of the simulation process may reveal that the E/Earchitecture as designed may not meet one or more performance criteria,such as maximum signal delay or maximum CPU or network utilization.Accordingly, as discussed above with respect to FIG. 5, the E/Earchitecture simulation/verification process can include a refinementprocess whereby the E/E architecture is modified in an attempt toaddress the design faults revealed by the failed simulation. Thisrefinement process can include, for example, changing the physicalrouting of signals, reprioritizing functions and tasks, redistributingfunctions and tasks among the ECUs and devices, creating or removingfunctions or tasks, adding or removing ECUs and devices, and the like.

FIG. 38 illustrates the change management process (block 412 of FIG. 4)in accordance with at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Asdiscussed above, a designer in one design domain may make modificationsto a component within the design domain that has ramifications for otherdesign domains. To illustrate, the addition of a new device requiresadditional signaling to control the new device, changes to an existingharness or network bus or the addition of a new harness or network busto transmit this signaling, the addition of new functions or tasks togenerate the signals that control the new device, etc. Accordingly, thechange management process can include utilizing one or more GUIsprovided by the domain agent to modify the E/E architecture at block3802. These modifications can include, but are not limited to, renamingmodifications, adding/removing components, tasks, and functions,reassigning tasks or functions, rerouting signals, changing performanceparameters of components, creating, modifying, or removing subsystems orvehicle variances, and the like. At block 3804, the domain agent canvisually depict the changes throughout the subsystem or vehiclevariance, or throughout the entire E/E architecture for the vehicle. Asdescribed in greater detail below, the changes can be graphicallydepicted via a hierarchical list of components of the subsystem orvehicle variance and their various attributes or characteristics,whereby the changes can be denoted via visual indicators associated witheach listed item, such as by utilizing different colored fonts ordifferent symbols to indicate changed items, deleted items, added items,etc. At block 3806, the designer can use the visual depiction of thechanges resulting from the designer's modifications to compare theoriginal E/E architecture with the revised E/E architecture to determinewhether the results justify the ramifications of the modification and atblock 3808 the designer can either commit the modifications to revisethe E/E architecture or decline the modifications to return to theoriginal E/E architecture based on these considerations. To illustrate,a designer may add a new task to a device that requires a new inputcontrol signal for the device. To accommodate the new input controlsignal, an upstream ECU may need to implement a new function, theaddition of which may require a more powerful CPU for the ECU, and a newcircuit may need to be added to the harness connecting the ECU and thedevice for transmitting the new signal. The designer, along with otherdesigners in the same domain or different domains, may perform acost-benefit analysis of this modification in view of these newrequirements. To illustrate, assuming that additional cost of a morepowerful CPU results in a $5 increase for the cost of the ECU and thecost to fabricate the harness with the additional wires raises theharness price by $1, and further assuming that 500,000 vehicles areprojected to sold for the particular vehicle variance implementing thisE/E architecture, thereby resulting in a $3,000,000 increase in the costof implementing the new task ($6 increase per vehicle times 500,000vehicles). Thus, if the new task is, for example, heating the right sideview mirror, the design team may decide that the new task does notjustify the cost of implementation, whereas if the new task is, forexample, the activation of an airbag, the design team may then decidethe new task justifies the cost of implementation.

In addition to allowing the designer who makes the modification toobserve the resulting changes throughout the E/E architecture, thechange management process further permits other designers in the samedesign domain and designers in the other design domains to also visuallyidentify the effects of architecture modifications committed by anotherdesigner. To illustrate, a designer in the harness domain may access theharness domain agent and observe that designers in the subsystem domainhave added new functionality to various ECUs in a subsystem that willrequire the addition of new circuits to the harness of the subsystem andnew signals to the frames transmitted in the network busses of thesubsystem. The designer in the harness domain then may consult with thedesigners who made the changes to verify their necessity or to furtherrefine the modifications, or if the changes appear acceptable, thedesigner in the harness domain then may utilize the GUIs of the domainagent to implement the necessary design changes to the harnesses andnetwork buses of the subsystem. The harness designer further may utilizethe GUIs of the domain agent to perform the simulation and verificationprocesses for the modified E/E architecture for the subsystem to verifycorrect operation.

FIGS. 39-43 illustrate example GUIs for the change management process ofFIG. 38 in accordance with at least one embodiment of the presentdisclosure. FIG. 39 is an example GUI 3900 for graphically depicting thesubsystems and vehicle variances impacted by a modification to the E/Earchitecture. The GUI 3900 includes a list pane 3902 that displays anexpandable list 3904 of subsystems and vehicle variances of the vehiclelibrary. The list pane 3902 utilizes visual indicators of the impactstatus of each listed item. In at least one embodiment, the visualindicators comprises different text colors. To illustrate, listedobjects that are not impacted by the modifications can be denoted usingblack text and listed objects that are impacted by the modifications canbe denoted using red text. However, in view of the black-and-whiteaspects of the figures, those listed objects that are impacted aredenoted with a “(*)” indicator in FIG. 39. FIG. 40 is an example GUI4000 displayed by the domain agent in response to a user's selection ofthe “Vehicle_Variance1” object in the expandable list 3904 of FIG. 39.The GUI 4000 includes a list pane 4002 that displays an expandablehierarchical list 4004 of objects (components, component attributes,etc.) associated with the vehicle variance and their impact status. Inthe depicted example, the indicator “(*)” is used to indicate that oneor more of the ECUs and one or more of the harnesses of the“Vehicle_Variance1” are impacted by the modifications. The GUI 4000further can include an impact legend 4006 that depicts how differenttypes of impact are denoted, such as whether the corresponding objecthas been modified or remains unmodified, whether the correspondingobject exists only in the original E/E architecture or whether thecorresponding object exists only in the revised (i.e., “new”) E/Earchitecture.

FIG. 41 is an example GUI 4100 provided by the domain agent in responseto the user's selection of the “Mod_IPM” ECU from the hierarchical list4004 of GUI 4000 of FIG. 40. The GUI 4100 includes a list pane 4102 thatillustrates an expanded list 4104 for the attributes associated with the“Mod_IPM” ECU and an impact legend 4106 depicting how the various impactstatuses are indicated. As illustrated in FIG. 41, the “connectedmediums” (i.e., harnesses and network buses), the ECU boundary, and theschedulers for the “Mod_IPM” ECU have been impacted by the modificationsto the E/E architecture. In particular, the illustrated expanded list4104 indicates though the use of the “(+)” indicator that a new medium,“IP”, has been connected to the “Mod_IPM” ECU. FIG. 42 is an example GUI4200 provided by the domain agent in response to the user's selection ofthe IP harness from the hierarchical list 4004 in response toidentifying, via the GUI 4100, that the “IP” harness has been connectedto the “Mod_IPM” ECU. The GUI 4200 includes a list pane 4202 displayingan expanded hierarchical list 4204 to show the various higher-levelattributes of the “IP” harness and their impact status. In the depictedexample, the hierarchical list 4204 graphically depicts that the one ormore circuits of the “IP” harness have been impacted by the modificationvia the use of the “(*)” indicator by the “CircuitFrames” object of thehierarchical list 4204. FIG. 43 is an example GUI 4300 provided by thedomain agent in response to the user's selection of the “G20” circuit ofthe “IP” harness from the hierarchical list 4204 in response toidentifying the “IP harness has been impacted by the modifications tothe E/E architecture. The GUI 4300 includes a list pane 4302 thatdisplays an expanded hierarchical list 4304 of the attributes of the“IP” harness, including an expanded hierarchical list for the “G20”circuit of the “IP” harness. As illustrated by the list 4304, the“receivers” attribute of the “IGNITION_RUN/START_SW_SENSE” signaltransmitted via the “G20” circuit has been modified, whereby theoriginal receiver attribute (“DB Value=[Mod_Cluster-CCN]”) has beenchanged (as signaled by the visual indicator “(−)”) with the addition ofanother receiver (“New Value=[Mod_Cluster-CCN, Mod_IPM]”)(as signaled bythe visual indicator “(+)”).

FIGS. 44-64 illustrate example techniques for GUI-based E/E architecturecomplexity management in accordance with at least one embodiment of thepresent disclosure. In at least one embodiment, the techniques describedbelow are implemented by the vehicle harness agent 210 (FIG. 2) or otherdomain agent based on an E/E architecture designed for a vehicleplatform using the techniques described above.

Vehicle manufacturers often provide a number of different configurationsfor any given vehicle platform. The different configurations caninclude, for example, different configurations for different worldmarkets, different configuration levels (e.g., “base”, “sport”,“limited”), and combinations thereof. The vehicle manufacture furthermay offer any number of features for a vehicle platform, where somefeatures may be standard for some vehicle configurations, optional forother vehicle configurations, and unavailable for yet other vehicleconfigurations. While the availability of multiple configurations and awide array of features allows a consumer or business to order a vehicleto suit a particular need, the sheer number of possible combinations ofconfigurations and orderable features results in substantial complexityin the design of the harnesses used to connect the electrical andelectronic components used to implement the various features. In theconventional harness design process, harness designers maintain aspreadsheet of the various vehicle configurations and orderable featuresfor a given vehicle platform, and from this spreadsheet the harnessdesigners attempt to custom design a harness for each possiblepermutation of the configurations and orderable features. This approachcan result in excessive cost as a custom harness may be designed andmanufactured for a particular vehicle build that has few or no sales.Further, this approach makes it difficult for the harness designers toquickly evaluate whether costs could be reduced by combining variousharness designs so that one harness can be implemented in a number ofdifferent vehicle configurations. Moreover, the harness designers mayoverlook a particular permutation and this oversight may only bediscovered on the factory floor as a vehicle ordered with the particularpermutation is being built but no harness is available for theparticular permutation, thereby requiring the harness designers torapidly design a harness and arrange for its manufacture and shipment tothe factory in an effort to reduce the impact of the unavailable harnessdesign on the manufacture flow of the factory.

One aspect of the example complexity management techniques describedherein is to facilitate verification that the identified harness buildscover all orderable combinations of a vehicle, which is accomplished byreading the product planning data and device data, mapping the devicesto the sales code features in the product plan and comprehending theaspects of the product planning, including thee variety of options (setof features combined) available to the customers in the different marketsegments the vehicle is sold (e.g., the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Europe,South America, etc.).

The harness domain agent takes all of the device information associatedwith the VVDs and reads the harness partitioning information from theDEF files, via a GUI, or both, and enables the user to partition theharness family. Further, the GUI enables the wiring engineer to definethe in-line architecture showing the inter-connectivity between harnessfamilies and to allocate the required features/devices associated witheach harness family. The domain agent then computes the connectionpatterns for each VVD and compares each VVD connection pattern withevery other pattern and combines similar connection patterns to derivethe first set of “maximum complexity” harnesses for that family ofharnesses. This set of builds are with minimum if any give-aways butstill supporting all the VVDs.

It often is not practical from a cost perspective for a vehiclemanufacturer to build a significant number of harness builds for aharness family. Rather, a vehicle manufacture typically will pick atarget number of harness builds that is acceptable for each harnessfamily based on past experience. To illustrate, for a body harnessfamily, the maximum complexity for harness builds in this family harnesscould be 1200 unique harness builds, whereas the vehicle manufacturermay have a target of no more than 70 builds for production. Thecomplexity management techniques described herein enable designers totake the identified maximum complexity builds and throughGUI-facilitated give-away analysis and cost number, try to reduce thenumber of builds to the target number in an iterative and intelligentmanner while ensuring that all VVDs are covered.

FIG. 44 illustrates an example method 4400 for vehicle architecturecomplexity management. At block 4402, the domain agent utilizes the E/Earchitecture designed for a vehicle platform and the product planninginformation to determine the initial vehicle variance designs (VVDs) andinitial E/E complexity for the vehicle platform, whereby each vehiclevariance design represents a unique orderable vehicle. The VVDs for avehicle platform represents every permissible permutation of vehiclebase configuration (also referred to as the “vehicle build” or the “bodystyle”) and selectable feature. To illustrate, assume that a vehicleplatform has two vehicle base configurations, CONFIG1 and CONFIG2, andthere are two separate optional features A and B (each corresponding toa different sales code), each of which can be implemented in eithervehicle base configuration and which are not mutually exclusive options.As illustrated by Table 1, in this example there are four (4) VVDs foreach vehicle base configuration, and thus eight (8) VVDs total for thevehicle platform. Table 1 also illustrates the nomenclature whereby eachVVD is uniquely identified by a descriptor that combines its vehiclebase configuration “bas26configuration” with each of the features of theVVD (separated by a “%”). To illustrate, the VVD descriptor“bas26configuration % X % Y” represents a VVD of the base configuration“bas26configuration” with features X and Y.

TABLE 1 EXAMPLE VVDs VVD Combination VVD Descriptor 1 CONFIG1 with nooptions CONFIG1 2 CONFIG1 with option A CONFIG1% A 3 CONFIG1 with optionB CONFIG1% B 4 CONFIG1 with options A and B CONFIG1% A % B 5 CONFIG2with no options CONFIG2 6 CONFIG2 with option A CONFIG2% A 7 CONFIG2with option B CONFIG2% B 8 CONFIG2 with options A and B CONFIG2% A % B

The E/E complexity for the vehicle platform represents the number ofpermissible permutations of the electronic/electronic components of allVVDs of a vehicle platform. The process of block 4402 is described ingreater detail below with reference to FIG. 45 and FIG. 54 illustratesan example GUI for displaying the VVDs and E/E complexity for a vehicleplatform.

After the determination of the initial VVDs and the E/E complexity forthe E/E architecture of the vehicle platform, at block 4404 the designercan refine the harness architecture by configuring the inlineconnections between harnesses, defining the distribution of ground andpower among the circuits of the harnesses, by verifying that the harnessconnectors are correct, and the like. The process of block 4404 isdescribed in greater detail below with reference to FIGS. 55-59.

As discussed above, the sheer number of possible combinations of vehiclebase configurations and features can result in a significant number ofdifferent harness builds, thereby driving up the harness designcomplexity for the vehicle platform and thus increasing the cost ofimplementation and the likelihood that a particular orderable vehiclewill not have a harness designed for its particular combination offeatures. Accordingly, at block 4406, a designer uses the domain agentto refine the harness design, the E/E architecture, and/or the VVDs toreduce the number of harness builds. After making these refinements, atblock 4408 the designer uses the domain agent to determine the VVDs andthe E/E complexity after modifications to the harness design, the E/Earchitecture, and the VVDs. If the harness complexity is acceptable,particularly in view of the costs of reducing complexity further, atblock 4410 the designer uses the domain agent to verify each VVD iscovered by a harness build (i.e., there is a harness build for veryorderable vehicle). If not, the designer further refines one or more ofthe harness design, the E/E architecture, or the VVDs until each VVD iscovered by a harness build for each harness family applicable to theVVD. It will be appreciated that while each VVD is to be covered by aharness build for an applicable harness family, a harness build may beused for any number of VVDs. If all VVDs are covered by a correspondingharness build for each applicable harness family, the designer cancommit the platform architecture for implementation, or at least archivethe platform architecture for further refinement in view of productplanning changes or modifications made in other domains. The processesof blocks 4406, 4408, and 4410 are described in greater detail belowwith reference to FIGS. 60-64.

FIG. 45 illustrates the initial VVD/complexity determination process ofblock 4402 of FIG. 44 in greater detail. The method of FIG. 45, in atleast one embodiment, is facilitated using the GUI of the domain agent.At block 4502, the designer imports the E/E architecture data for thevehicle platform into the domain agent. As described above, this E/Earchitecture data describes the components of the E/E architecture(i.e., ECUs and other devices, harnesses, connectors, and networkbusses), their functions and tasks, their connections (e.g., wiringcircuits, logical signals (in network frames)) and other relationships,and certain performance parameters. In one embodiment, the E/Earchitecture data is represented by a circuit database identifying allof the wiring circuits of the E/E architecture data and one or more dataexchange files (DEFs) that define the various harnesses of the E/Earchitecture and the devices to which the harnesses are connected. A DEFcan include a logical DEF that includes the device connectors, thecircuit-to-pin connections, and the harnesses. A DEF alternately caninclude a physical DEF that includes the information of a logical DEFand additional includes splice and inline connector information.

At block 4504, the designer imports the product planning information forthe vehicle platform into the domain agent. The product planninginformation identifies all of the particular vehicle base configurationsfor the vehicle platform, identifies each of the available feature salescodes and whether the corresponding feature is standard, optional, notavailable, part of a package, etc., for each of the identified vehiclebase configurations. The product planning information further canidentify those features that are mutually exclusive (i.e., are notorderable together for the same vehicle). In addition to vehicleconfiguration information, the product planning information can includeinformation regarding the “take rate” for each particular vehicle baseconfiguration, each feature, etc. The “take rate” for a vehicle baseconfiguration or feature represents the number of vehicles predicted tobe ordered with the vehicle base configuration or feature. The “takerate” can be determined based on past purchase history or based onforward-looking predictions based on polling, focus groups, or otherpredictive information. Moreover, in at least one embodiment, theproduct planning information can include cost information forimplementing certain aspects of a harness build. To illustrate, the costinformation can include a per-unit harness build cost, a per-circuitcost, a per-connector cost, and the like.

After the relevant information has been imported into the domain agent,at block 4506 the designer uses the GUI of the domain agent to selectthe harnesses represented in the imported E/E architecture data that areto be included in the vehicle platform. FIG. 46 is an example GUI 4600to facilitate selection of harnesses for inclusion in a vehicleplatform. The GUI 4600 displays a harness list 4602 that lists all ofthe harnesses. The GUI 4600 further a harness selection pane 4604 toreceive user input (selection of a check box in the illustrated example)indicating which harnesses are to be included, and also included harnesspane 4606 to display those harnesses that are already included. Theselection of the harnesses can be facilitated using a “select all”button 4608 if all harnesses are to be included in the vehicle platform.Once the designer has selected the harness families, the designer cansubmit the user input indicating the selected harnesses via, e.g., a“load” button 4610.

Referring again to FIG. 45, the importation of both the E/E architecturedata and the product planning information can result in redundantdevices (e.g., the same device has one name in the E/E architecture anda different name in the product planning information). Accordingly, atblock 4508 the designer can use the domain agent to identify and removeredundant devices in a manner similar to the process described above.FIG. 47 illustrates an example GUI 4700 displaying a device list 4702 ofdevices in the E/E architecture. The GUI 4700 further includes a userinput pane 4704 whereby the designer can select listed devices forinclusion in (or select listed devices for exclusion from) the vehicleplatform. The GUI 4700 further includes a legend 4706 identifying thesource of device: in the harness side only, in the configuration sideonly, or both.

At block 4510 of FIG. 45, the designer can use the domain agent topartition the E/E architecture into one or more subsystems, if notalready so partitioned in the imported E/E architecture data so as tofacilitate assignment of devices to features. At block 4512, thedesigner uses the GUI of the domain agent to map devices of the E/Earchitecture to the features (sales codes) identified in the productplanning information. To illustrate, if “Heated Seats” is one of thefeatures, then the designer could associate a right seat heatingelement, a left seat heating element, a right heating switch, a leftheating switch, a right heating fuse, and a left heating fuse with the“Heated Seats” feature. FIG. 48 is an example GUI 4800 for facilitatingassignment of devices to features. In the depicted example, the GUI 4800includes a list pane 4802 that displays an expandable 4804 of availablefeatures. Upon selection of a particular feature (feature “Sound Group”with sales code “AAX” in FIG. 48), the GUI 4800 displays a device list4806 of all of the devices in the vehicle platform and further providesa user input pane 4808 to obtain user input from the designer indicatingwhich devices are to be associated with the selected feature. In oneembodiment, the GUI 4800 further is configured to permit the designer tofilter the device list 4806 so as to only list those devices associatedwith one or more selected subsystems so as to limit the number of listeddevices.

As the product planning information identified which features wereavailable for which vehicle base configuration, and as devices aremapped to the various features at block 4512, the devices areautomatically initially mapped to the vehicle base configurations basedon features available to the vehicle base configurations. However, incertain situations, it may be advantageous to more particularly definethe usage of a device by adding a device to or deleting a device from avehicle base configuration. To illustrate, a “Premium Audio” feature maynecessitate the deletion of one or more devices associated with the“Base Audio” feature. Accordingly, at block 4514, the designer can usethe GUI of the domain agent to define the usage of the devices withinthe vehicle platform.

FIG. 49 is an example GUI 4900 to graphically display the relationshipbetween devices and features. The GUI 4900 includes a list pane 4902displaying an expandable list 4904 of the features available for a givenplatform. Upon selection of a particular listed feature, the list 4904can expand to display the devices associated with the feature.Similarly, FIG. 50 is an example GUI 5000 to graphically display theoptions for a vehicle platform, whereby the GUI 5000 includes a listpane 5002 displaying an expandable list 5004 of options. Upon selectionof a particular listed option, the list 5004 expands to display the oneor more features associated with the option (e.g., if the option is apackage of features) and the devices associated with each feature of theoption.

It will be appreciated that features in a vehicle platform often aremutually exclusive. To illustrate, a customer typically cannot order avehicle having both a “base audio” feature and a “premium audio” featureas the premium audio feature often replaces devices (e.g., the receiver,the speakers, etc.) with higher-quality devices. As another example, acustomer cannot order both a “six cylinder engine” feature and an“eight-cylinder engine” feature on the same vehicle. Accordingly, sothat the VVDs and E/E complexity accurately reflects these impermissiblefeature permutations, at block 4518 the designer can use the domainagent to identify those features that are mutually exclusive, if notalready identified as such in the imported product planning information.FIG. 51 is a series of GUIs illustrating an example process foridentifying mutually exclusive features/options. GUI 5100 represents aneditor listing various groups having mutually exclusive features oroptions. From the GUI 5100, the designer can initiate identification ofa new group of mutually exclusive features or options. A GUI 5102 can beused to receive user input indicating the name of the new group and aGUI 5104 can be used to initiate the addition of mutually exclusivefeatures or options to the indicated group. The GUI 5106 displays a list5108 of features or options that can be selected by the designer fordesignation as being mutually exclusive. The GUI 5108 reflects theselection of the options “LSA→Security Alarm” and “LSD→Deluxe SecurityAlarm” as being mutually exclusive.

At block 4520 of FIG. 45, the designer identifies (via, e.g., a GUI (notshown)) a set of vehicle base configurations of the vehicle platform andthe domain agent determines all of the VVDs initially available for theselected vehicle base configurations as all permitted permutations ofthe identified vehicle base configurations, the features and optionsavailable for each vehicle base configuration, and thosefeatures/options that are identified as mutually exclusive.

FIG. 52 is an example GUI 5200 having a list pane 5202 to display a list5204 of vehicle base configurations for a vehicle platform“FSL_Platform”. A designer can select a particular vehicle baseconfiguration from the list 5204 to expand the list to display thestandard selections, the retail options, and the fleet options for theparticular vehicle base configuration, as well as the devices associatedwith the listed features and options. Further, a designer can select aparticular vehicle base configuration from the list 5204 to initiatedisplay of the VVDs for the selected vehicle base configuration. FIG. 53is an example GUI 5300 having a list pane 5302 to display an expandablelist 5304 of VVDs determined at block 4520 (FIG. 45) for the vehiclebase configuration “CALYPSO HYP ALP-M31B 2TX-CAN”.

Returning to FIG. 45, at block 4522 the domain agent determines theinitial E/E complexity for the vehicle platform based on the VVDs forthe vehicle platform and the devices associated with each featureincorporated in the VVDs. In at least one embodiment, the domain agentcalculates the E/E complexity as the total number of E/E variationsacross all of the permitted VVDs calculated as the permittedpermutations of vehicle base configurations, available features andoptions, feature/option exclusivity, and device association and usage.

FIG. 54 is an example GUI 5400 for displaying the initial E/E complexityof a vehicle platform. The GUI 5400 includes a display pane having alist 5402 of the vehicle base configurations of the vehicle platform anda list of the number of E/E variances for each vehicle baseconfiguration, as well as a total number of E/E variances summed for allof the vehicle base configurations. Further, in the depicted example,the GUI 5400 lists the numbers of mechanical variances for the vehiclebase configurations. The GUI 5400 further can be used to display the E/Ecomplexity of the vehicle platform after further refinement.

FIG. 55 illustrates an example of the harness refinement process ofblock 4404 of FIG. 44 in greater detail. The imported E/E architecturedata and the product planning data may not fully describe certainaspects of the harness configuration of the E/E architecture, such ashow the power and ground references are distributed through theharnesses, how different harnesses connect to each other (i.e., how theinlines are configured). Further, it may be advantageous for thedesigner to visually verify that the E/E architecture related to theharness designs is correct. Accordingly, at block 5502 the designer canuse the domain agent to configure the ground or power distribution withone or more harnesses. FIG. 56 is an example GUI 5600 used to facilitatethis process. The GUI 5600 includes a harness selector feature 5601(e.g., a pull-down list) to assist the designer in selecting a harnessfamily (e.g., the “injector” harness family in the illustrated example).The GUI 5600 further includes a list pane 5602 to display a list 5604 ofground components (i.e., devices—ground posts—to which the harnesses aregrounded on the vehicle via ground circuits; in other words all thegrounding ties into the battery for a common ground for the vehicle).For a selected ground component from the list 5604, the GUI 5600 furtherincludes a list pane 5606 to display a list 5608 of circuits of theselected harness family available to connect to the selected groundcomponent and a list pane 5610 to display a list 5612 of harnesscircuits already associated with the selected ground component. Thedesigner can add or remove harness circuits to the list 5612 via, e.g.,an “add” button 5614 or a “remove” button 5616, respectively. A similarGUI can be used to distribute the power components within harnessfamilies.

At block 5504 of FIG. 55, the designer further can use the domain agentto configure the inline connections between harnesses, where an inlineconnection represents a mapping of circuits and corresponding connectorpins of one harness to connector pins and corresponding circuits ofanother harness. FIG. 57 is an example GUI 5700 that can facilitate thedesignation of inlines between harnesses. The GUI 5700 includes a listpane 5702 to display a list 5704 of inlines for the vehicle platform,whereby each inline uses the naming convention “harnessA<>harnessB” toindicate it is the inline connecting harness A and harness B. The list5704 is expandable to display the particular connections within theinline. Further, the GUI 5700 includes a display pane 5706 to display amatrix 5708 of harness connections. In the depicted example, the list ofharness families is scrolled both horizontally and vertically, and aconnection between corresponding harnesses is indicated by a “check” inthe box feature at the intersection of the two harnesses. In at leastone embodiment, the domain agent determines the initial inlineconnections between harnesses via the E/E architecture data andpopulates the matrix 5608. However, the designer can use the GUI 5700 tofurther refine the inline configuration by adding new inlines notdiscernable by the domain agent from the original E/E architecture data,by removing unnecessary inlines, or by modifying existing inlines.

Referring back to FIG. 55, at block 5506, the designer can use thedomain agent to view the harness architecture in an expandable listformat and at block 5508 the designer can use the domain agent to viewthe harness architecture in schematic format so as to verify the harnessdesign. FIG. 58 is an example GUI 5800 having a list pane 5802 todisplay an expandable list 5804 of the harness design for a harnessfamily, including connector assemblies and device connectors. For thedevice connectors, the list 5804 can list the mapping of signals toharness circuits and the mapping of harness circuits to connectors andpins. The list 5804 further can list the VVDs supported by a particularconnector. FIG. 59 is an example GUI 5900 having a display pane 5902 todisplay a harness schematic 5904 of a selected harness. In the depictedexample, the harness schematic 5904 depicts the device connectors of the“DASH BOARD” harness as boxes and the corresponding circuits of theharness as lines connecting terminals of the device connectors. Thedevice connector boxes further display pin-to-circuit connectorinformation. To illustrate, the box 5906 representing the deviceconnector to the device “Snsr_HDLP_Level_FT” lists the mapping ofharness circuits to corresponding pins of the device connector using theconvention “pin#→[circuit ID]”. For example, the descriptor “1→[L962]”in the box 5906 indicates that pin 1 of the device connector isconnected to the circuit “L962” of the harness. The inline connectorsand splices can be graphically represented in the same manner.

Returning to FIG. 55, at block 5510 the designer determines whetherthere are any errors in the harness design based on the visualinformation provided by the GUIs 5800 and 5900. To illustrate, thedesigner may discern from the displayed list 5804 of FIG. 58 or from thedisplayed harness schematic 5904 of FIG. 59 that a pin of a deviceconnector is not connected to a corresponding circuit (i.e., the pin ofthe device connector is a “stub” or that a circuit of the wiring harnessis connected at only one end. In such instances, the designer can usethe domain agent to redesign the E/E architecture to correct theidentified errors. The designer then may use verify the harness designsof the modified E/E architecture via one or more of the processes ofblocks 5502, 5504, 5506, and 5508. After the designer has ascertainedthat no errors are readily identifiable in the harness designs, theprocess continues to block 4406 of FIG. 44 as described herein.

FIGS. 60-64 illustrate an example implementation of the harnesscomplexity optimization process of blocks 4406, 4408, and 4410 of FIG. 6in accordance with at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.Referring to the flow diagram of FIG. 60, at block 6002, a designer usesa domain agent to determine the initial harness builds for a selectedharness family based on all of the VVDs for the vehicle platform andwithout incorporating any unused device configurations (referred toherein as “give-aways”). The number and configuration of the harnessbuilds is determined from the applicable configurations of each of theVVDs.

At block 6004, the domain agent determines the connection patternswithin each harness build identified in block 6002 to cluster harnessbuilds based on a common connection pattern. To illustrate, assume thatthere are five components (components A, B, C, D, E) that can beconnected within a harness family, and whereby there are eight initialharness builds in the harness family that support the eight VVDs in theexample. Table 2 illustrates example connection patterns for these eightVVDs:

TABLE 2 EXAMPLE VVD/Harness Build VVD Connection Pattern Harness Build 1A-B-C-D-E 1 2 A-B-D 2 3 A-B 3 4 A-B 4 5 C-D 5 6 A-B-C-D-E 6 7 A-B-D 7 8A-B-C-D-E 8

As Table 2 illustrates, harness builds 1, 6, and 8 (for VVDs 1, 6, and8, respectively) have the same connection pattern and thus these harnessbuilds can be collapsed into a single harness build 1A. Likewise,harness builds 2 and 7 (for VVDs 2 and 7, respectively) have the sameconnection pattern and thus can be collapsed into a single harness build2A. The harness builds 3 and 4 (for VVDs 3 and 4, respectively) have thesame connection pattern and thus can be collapsed into a single harnessbuild 3A. Table 3 illustrates the resulting refined harness buildsdetermined by the domain agent for the eight VVDs based on determiningthe connection patterns utilized by each VVD and then combiningassociated harness builds due to their overlap. This resulting set ofharness builds that covers all VVDs without give-aways in the harnessbuilds is referred to the “maximum complexity” of the harness build

TABLE 3 EXAMPLE MAXIMUM HARNESS COMPLEXITY Harness Build ConnectionPattern VVDs 1A A-B-C-D-E 1, 6, 8 2A A-B-D 2, 7 3A A-B 3, 4 5   C-D 5

As illustrated by Table 3, by analyzing the initial harness builds for aharness family determined for all of the VVDs to determine theiroverlapping connection patterns and then clustering the harness buildsby a common connection pattern, the number of harness builds identifiedto cover all eight VVDs can be reduced from eight harness builds to fourharness builds.

At block 6006, the domain agent uses a GUI to display the maximumharness complexity for the VVDs, i.e., the list of harness buildswithout any “give-aways” for the selected harness family, so as to allowthe designer to determine the initial harness complexity for a givenharness family. FIG. 61 is an example GUI 6100 having a list pane 6102to display a harness build list 6104 of harness builds for a particularharness family. The harness build list 6104 is expandable to display alist of VVDs supported by a selected harness build. In the depictedexample, sixty-four (64) harness builds for the “DAS45BOARD” harnessinitially are required to cover all of the VVDs of the vehicle platform.

At block 6008, the designer considers whether the indicated maximumharness complexity is acceptable. Factors in this decision can include,for example, the number of harness builds for a particular harnessfamily, the monetary cost or time cost of fabricating each harnessbuild, the cost of managing the number of harness builds, the cost ofredesigning one or more subsystems to reduce the number of harnessbuilds, the cost of implementing give-aways in the harness family, andthe like. To illustrate, in one embodiment, the vehicle manufacture mayset a predetermined maximum number of harness builds for any particularfamily and thus a redesign may be necessitated if this predeterminedmaximum is initially exceeded. For example, the manufacturer may set amaximum number of harness builds for the “DAS45BOARD” at fifty (50)harness builds, so the sixty-four initial harness builds would exceedthis threshold and thus mandate a redesign in an attempt to reduceharness complexity.

A designer can take a number of approaches, or combinations thereof, inan effort to reduce harness complexity. To illustrate, at block 6010 thedesigner can remove or combine VVDs to reduce the total number of VVDsthat need to be supported by a corresponding harness build. Toillustrate, the imported product planning information may indicate thata particular vehicle base configuration may account for fewer than, forexample, 1% of vehicle sales and thus it may be more cost effective toeliminate that vehicle base configuration from the vehicle platform (andthereby removing all VVDs based on the vehicle base configuration) thanto redesign the E/E architecture in an effort to reduce the harnesscomplexity arising from the vehicle base configuration. As anotherexample, the designer may ascertain from the product planninginformation that a particular feature has a low take rate and thus itmay be more cost effective to delete the feature from the vehicleplatform and thereby reduce the number of VVDs than it would be toredesign the E/E architecture to keep the feature. In addition to, or asan alternate to, modifying the VVDs, at block 6012 the designer canmodify the E/E architecture in an attempt to reduce harness complexity.To illustrate, it may be more cost effective to combine two devices intoa single device with the attendant reduced wiring requirements than itwould be to keep the two devices separate. As another example, thedesigner can attempt to reroute signaling to reduce the number ofharnesses needed to conduct the signals from the signal source to thesignal destination, thereby potentially reducing the wiring requirementsof the harnesses and thus reducing the harness complexity. As yetanother example, the designer can attempt to combine signaling from anumber of harnesses into logical signaling transmitted via a network busin an attempt to reduce harness complexity.

In addition to, or instead of, implementing changes in the VVDs and E/Earchitecture of the vehicle platform, the designer can investigate thetrade offs of implementing one or more “give-aways” in the harnessfamily. A “give away” is the implementation in one or more harnessbuilds of a harness family the device connectors and wiring circuitsneeded to implement a particular optional feature even though thatfeature is not implemented in every VVD supported by the harness builds.The “give away” typically does not include the devices used to implementthe feature (but a give away can include the device if it is morepractical to do so). To illustrate, a digital tachometer may be anoptional feature and require a device connector to the digitaltachometer with two wiring circuits to carry signaling from an engineECU to the digital tachometer via an “Engine” harness and a “dashboard”harness. Implementing the digital tachometer as a “give away” thereforewould require implementation of the device connector and the two wirecircuits (and corresponding inline connectors) in every harness build ofthe “dashboard” harness and implementation of the two write circuits(and corresponding inline connectors) in every harness build of the“engine” harness. Thus, while the cost of manufacturing each harnessbuild for the “engine” and “dashboard” harnesses increases due to the“give away” of the digital tachometer, the number of harness builds forthe “engine” and “dashboard” harnesses can be decreased as each harnessbuild is capable of supporting the optional digital tachometer featureregardless of whether it is present in any given VVD, and thus a smallernumber of harness builds is needed to support all of the VVDs.

Accordingly, at block 6014 the domain agent determines the features andoptions available as “give-aways” for the selected harness family. In atleast one embodiment, the domain agent has a knowledge of the featuresassociated with the VVDs (e.g., it knows the devices required for theharness family based on the VVDs). For give-aways, the domain agentlists the features associated with the harness family based on thefeatures associated with the devices connected to the harness family.The “giving away” part is then up to the designer's judgment. Thegive-away analysis can be done in an iterative approach whereby thedesigner selects a feature for give-away and then determines the cost ofthe give-away. The designer then determines whether the cost justifiesthe reduction in harness complexity. In at least one embodiment, thedomain agent provides a GUI to display the “give-aways” and to receiveuser input from the designer that indicates which available features andoptions are to be implemented as “give-aways” for the harness family.FIG. 62 is an example GUI 6200 to facilitate this process. The GUI 6200includes a list pane to display a list 6204 of harness builds, userinput pane 6206 to display a list 6206 of features and options availablefor selection as “give-aways” and a user input feature 6208 (e.g., acheck box) to receive user input indicating selection of one or more ofthe features or options from the list 6206. The GUI 6200 furtherincludes a display pane 6210 to provide information regarding the “giveaway” cost of implementing the selected features and options as“give-aways”. In the example of FIG. 62, the designer has selected theoptions of “Buyer Security Group”, “Automatic Headlamp Leveling System”,the “give-aways” have not been associated with particular VVDs, and thusthe total give away cost is identified as “$0.” The displayed give awaycost information can include the total give away cost, a per unit cost,a per VVD cost, a per give away cost, and the like.

At block 6014, the domain agent displays those VVDs that do notimplement the selected “give away” features and options and receivesuser input indicating which of those VVDs are to implement the selectedfeatures or options as “give-aways”. FIG. 63 is an example GUI 6300 tofacilitate the association of the selected “give-aways” with one or moreVVDs of the vehicle platform. The GUI 6300 includes a list pane 6302 todisplay a list 6304 of the features or options selected as “give-aways”for a harness family and a list pane 6306 to display a list 6308 of VVDsthat do not incorporate a features or option selected from the list6304. The GUI 6300 further receives user input indicating which of theVVDs of the list 6308 is to implement the selected feature from list6304 as a “give away”. To illustrate, the designer can select the menuitem “Select All VVDs” from a menu 6310 to associate all listed VVDswith the selected “give away” feature or option. Alternately, thedesigner can select the menu item “Select VVDs to give-away feature”from the menu 6310 to display another GUI (not shown) that permits thedesigner to individually select VVDs to implement the selected “giveaway” feature.

At block 6016, the domain agent uses the designer-identified “give away”features and the VVDs that are to implement the features or options as“give-aways” to redetermine the number and configuration of harnessbuilds needed to cover all possible VVDs and displays the resultingoptimized harness build list. FIG. 64 is an example GUI 6400 to displaythe original harness build list and the resulting optimized harnessbuild list. The GUI 6400 includes a list pane 6402 to display the list6204 of original harness builds without any “give-aways” and a displaypane 6406 to display those features or options selected as “give-aways”.The GUI 6400 further includes a list pane 6408 to display a list 6410 ofthe optimized harness builds resulting from implementation of theselected features or options as “give-aways.” In the example of FIG. 64,the selection of the options of “Buyer Security Group”, “AutomaticHeadlamp Leveling System”, “Premium Security Alarm” and “Remote StartSystem” as “give-aways” for all VVDs of the platform results in areduction in the number of harness builds to support all VVDs from theoriginal sixty-four (64) harness builds to forty-one (41) harnessbuilds.

At block 6018, the domain agent determines the implementation cost ofthe selected features or options as “give-aways” for the harness buildsof the selected builds. This implementation cost can be based on any ofa variety of factors. To illustrate, in one embodiment, a fixed unitcost is assigned for each “give away” feature or option (or based ondifferent cost classes of “give away” features) and thus the direct costof implementation is a product of the fixed unit cost and the number ofvehicles likely to implement a harness build having the selected featureas a “give away” feature, rather than an actually implemented feature.To illustrate, assume, for example, there is a “give away” cost of $1per harness to implement the “Remote Start System” feature as a “giveaway” and the product planning information indicates of the 100,000vehicles expected to be sold, 90% of the vehicles sold will notimplement the “Remote Start System.” Thus, there is expected to be90,000 vehicles to be sold having a harness with the “Remote StartSystem” at a give-away cost of $1 per vehicle, for a total give-awaycost of $90,000 for implementing the “Remote Start System” feature as agive-away to reduce harness complexity. In another embodiment, thegive-away cost can be more detailed, such as by breaking down the costsbased on the number of connector give-aways, the number of circuitgive-aways, and the cost of each connector give-away and circuitgive-away (either on a fixed basis or on a class-type basis (e.g.,giving a higher per unit basis to a lower gauge circuit than to ahigher-gauge circuit)). The cost information can be imported from theproduct planning information, derived from the E/E architectureinformation, or supplied by a designer based on experience or someexternal source of information, or a combination thereof. The costinformation can be displayed via a GUI provided by the domain agent(e.g., in display pane 6210 of GUI 6200 of FIG. 62).

At block 6020, the designer considers whether the reduction in theharness complexity afforded by the implementation of “give-away”features or options justifies the total “give-away” cost (i.e., whetherthe tradeoff between reduced harness complexity and increased productioncosts is acceptable). This decision can be made on any number of factorsand their relative importance to the design process. To illustrate,there is considerable cost and complexity in managing a large number ofharness builds, and this cost and complexity is compounded by the numberof harness families present in a vehicle platform, each of themtypically having a large number of harness builds. Accordingly, thetotal give-away cost for implementing a number of features or options asgive-aways so as to significantly reduce the number of harness buildsmay be acceptable to the vehicle manufacturer. On the other hand, if theimplementation of a particular feature as a give-away option results ina give-away cost in the millions of dollars but only results in arelatively small reduction in the number of harness builds, thistradeoff may not be acceptable to the vehicle manufacturer.

In the event that the tradeoff between reduced harness complexity andthe total give-away cost is not acceptable, the designer can repeat theprocess of blocks 6008-6020 using a different tradeoff. To illustrate,the designer can select a different combination of features or optionsto be implemented as “give-aways”, the designer can select a differentset of VVDs to implement the selected features or options as“give-aways”, and the like. Otherwise, if the tradeoff is acceptable,the designer can repeat the optimization process for other harnessfamilies of the vehicle platform. Once the harness designs have beensufficiently optimized, the flow turns to the finalization process ofblock 4412 of FIG. 44 as described above.

Although the complexity management process was described above in aparticular context of harness complexity, it will be appreciated thatthis complexity approach utilizing determining common patterns to reducethe initial complexity and then further reducing complexity byidentifying certain give-away features can be applied to other relatedareas of vehicle design. To illustrate, in at least one embodiment thecomplexity management process can be implemented in managing mechanicalcomplexity in a vehicle. To illustrate, a vehicle platform may implementdifferent rear fascia configurations based on whether the vehicle to bebuilt includes a tow hitch, back-up sensors, one exhaust or twoexhausts, parking assist, etc. The fascia designer then can determineall of the possible VVDs resulting from the different combinations offeatures related to the rear fascia and then investigate give-aways withrespect to the rear facia to reduce the total number of rear faciabuilds. To illustrate, it may be advantageous to configure every faciawith an opening for a tow hitch receiver so as to reduce the totalnumber of rear facias, even though a number of VVDs may not implement atow hitch.

The complexity management feature further can be applied to softwarecomplexity management in a vehicle platform. To illustrate, vehiclemanufactures often utilize the same ECU build for differentconfigurations of the same vehicle platform. Typically, the ECUimplements a non-volatile memory that stores the code for all differentconfigurations and the ECU can be configured to use the code for aparticular configuration via, for example, a jumper connectingparticular pins of the ECU. However, considerable cost is expended inthis approach as the ECU requires non-volatile memory to store unusedcode for other configurations. To illustrate, assume that there arethree possible code configurations for an ECU (e.g., one each for theU.S., European, and Japanese markets), and each configuration requires 1MB of flash memory storage, even though there may be considerableoverlap in the functionality provided by each code configuration. Inthis example, the ECU would need 3 MB of flash memory total to be ableto store all three code configurations. However, with the ability tocalculate the exact software feature content for each market using theabove-described complexity management process, the vehicle manufacturercan identify only those software routines required for any given marketand thus program the ECU destined for that marked with the only therequired software, thereby reducing the memory requirements (e.g., to 1MB) and hence the cost of implementing the ECU.

Other embodiments, uses, and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of thespecification and practice of the disclosure disclosed herein. Thespecification and drawings should be considered exemplary only, and thescope of the disclosure is accordingly intended to be limited only bythe following claims and equivalents thereof.

1. A method comprising: providing a database comprising informationrepresentative of an electrical/electronic (E/E) architecture of avehicle, the information including information regarding relationshipsand connections between components of the E/E architecture of thevehicle; determining an impact status of a second aspect of a secondcomponent of the E/E architecture resulting from a modification to afirst aspect of a first component based on the relationships andconnections between components of the E/E architecture as represented inthe database; and displaying, via a graphical user interface (GUI), avisual representation of the impact status of the second aspect of thesecond component of the E/E architecture.
 2. The method of claim 1,further comprising: modifying, via the GUI, the first aspect of thefirst component.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein modifying the firstaspect of first component comprises at least one selected from a groupconsisting of: adding the component to the E/E architecture; removingthe first component from the E/E architecture; adding a function to thefirst component; removing a function from the first component of the E/Earchitecture; reassigning a function from another component of thearchitecture to the first component; reassigning a function from thefirst component of the architecture to another component; adding aperformance parameter to the first component; removing a performanceparameter from the component; and modifying a performance parameter ofthe first component.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining theimpact status of the second aspect of the second component comprises atleast one selected from: determining whether the second aspect is addedto the second component as a result of modifying the first aspect of thefirst component; determining whether the second aspect is removed fromthe second component as a result of modifying the first aspect of thefirst component; and determining whether the second aspect is changedfrom a first value to a second value as a result of modifying the firstaspect of the first component.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the GUIcomprises a first GUI associated with a first design domain, the methodfurther comprising: modifying, via second GUI associated with a seconddesign domain, the first aspect of the first component.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein displaying the visual representation of the impactstatus of the second aspect of the second component comprises:displaying, via the GUI, a first visual indicator in association withthe second aspect of the second component in response to determining thesecond aspect is added to the second component as a result of modifyingthe first aspect of the first component; displaying, via the GUI, asecond visual indicator in association with the second aspect of thesecond component in response to determining the second aspect is removedfrom the second component as a result of modifying the first aspect ofthe first component; displaying, via the GUI, a third visual indicatorin association with the second aspect of the second component inresponse to determining the second aspect is changed from a first valueto a second value as a result of modifying the first aspect of the firstcomponent; and displaying, at the GUI, a fourth visual indicator inassociation with the second aspect of the second component in responseto determining the second aspect is not impacted as a result ofmodifying the first aspect of the first component.
 7. The method ofclaim 6, wherein: the first visual indicator comprises displayed textrepresentative of the second aspect of the second component and having afirst color; the second visual indicator comprises displayed textrepresentative of the second aspect of the second component and having asecond color; the third visual indicator comprises displayed textrepresentative of the second aspect of the second component and having athird color; and the fourth visual indicator comprises displayed textrepresentative of the second aspect of the second component and having afourth color.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the visualrepresentation of the impact status of the second aspect of the secondcomponent comprises: displaying, via the GUI, a hierarchical list ofcomponents and aspects of the component, the second aspect of the secondcomponent represented by a listed item of the hierarchical list; anddisplaying, via the GUI, a visual indicator in association with eachitem listed in the hierarchical list, the visual indicator identifyingan impact status to the associated item resulting from one or moremodifications to the E/E architecture, the one or more modificationsincluding modifying the first aspect of the first component.
 9. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, via the GUI, userinput indicating whether to commit or remove the modification to thefirst aspect of the first component in response to displaying the visualrepresentation of the impact status of the second aspect of the secondcomponent; committing the modification to the first aspect of the firstcomponent to the E/E architecture in response to the user inputindicating the modification is to be committed; and removing themodification to the first aspect of the first component from the E/Earchitecture in response to the user input indicating the modificationis to be removed.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the databasecomprises a first database associated with a first design domain, themethod further comprising: synchronizing a second database associatedwith a second design domain in response to committing the modificationto the first aspect of the first component to the E/E architecture. 11.A method comprising: determining a electrical/electronic (E/E)architecture of a vehicle, E/E architecture including relationships andconnections between a plurality of components of the E/E architecture;determining an impact status to each component of the plurality ofcomponents resulting from modifying one or more aspects of the E/Earchitecture; displaying, via a graphical user interface (GUI), ahierarchical list of the plurality of components and aspects of eachcomponent; and displaying, via the GUI, a visual indicator inassociation with each item listed in the hierarchical list, the visualindicator identifying an impact status to the associated item resultingfrom modifying the one or more aspects of the E/E architecture.
 12. Themethod of claim 11, wherein the visual indicator comprises a colorassociated with the corresponding impact status.
 13. The method of claim11, further comprising: modifying, via the GUI, the one or more aspectsof the E/E architecture.
 14. A system comprising: one or moreprocessors; a storage device configured to store a database comprisinginformation representative of an electrical/electronic (E/E)architecture of a vehicle, the information including informationregarding relationships and connections between components of the E/Earchitecture of the vehicle; and a computer readable memory configuredto store executable instructions, the executable instructionscomprising: instructions to manipulate the one or more processors toprovide a graphical user interface (GUI); instructions to manipulate theone or more processors to determine an impact status of a second aspectof a second component of the E/E architecture resulting from amodification to a first aspect of a first component of the E/Earchitecture based on the relationships and connections betweencomponents of the E/E architecture as represented in the database; andinstructions to manipulate the one or more processors to display, viathe GUI, a visual representation of the impact status of the secondaspect of the second component of the E/E architecture.
 15. The systemof claim 14, wherein the executable instructions further comprise:instructions to manipulate the one or more processor to receive, via theGUI, user input representative of the modification to the first aspectof the first component.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein themodification to the first aspect of the first component comprises atleast one selected from a group consisting of: adding the component tothe E/E architecture; removing the first component from the E/Earchitecture; adding a function to the first component; removing afunction from the first component of the E/E architecture; reassigning afunction from another component of the architecture to the firstcomponent; reassigning a function from the first component of thearchitecture to another component; adding a performance parameter to thefirst component; removing a performance parameter from the component;and modifying a performance parameter of the first component.
 17. Thesystem of claim 16, wherein the instructions configured to manipulatethe one or more processors to determine the impact status of the secondaspect of the second component comprise at least one selected from:instructions configured to manipulate the one or more processors todetermine whether the second aspect is added to the second component asa result of the modification to the first aspect of the first component;instructions configured to manipulate the one or more processors todetermine whether the second aspect is removed from the second componentas a result of the modification to the first aspect of the firstcomponent; and instructions configured to manipulate the one or moreprocessors to determine whether the second aspect is changed from afirst value to a second value as a result of the modification to thefirst aspect of the first component.
 18. The system of claim 14, whereinthe instructions configured to manipulate the one or more processors todisplay the visual representation of the impact status of the secondaspect of the second component comprise instructions configured tomanipulate the one or more processors to: display, via the GUI, a firstvisual indicator in association with the second aspect of the secondcomponent in response to determining the second aspect is added to thesecond component as a result of modifying the first aspect of the firstcomponent; display, via the GUI, a second visual indicator inassociation with the second aspect of the second component in responseto determining the second aspect is removed from the second component asa result of modifying the first aspect of the first component; display,via the GUI, a third visual indicator in association with the secondaspect of the second component in response to determining the secondaspect is changed from a first value to a second value as a result ofmodifying the first aspect of the first component; and display, at theGUI, a fourth visual indicator in association with the second aspect ofthe second component in response to determining the second aspect is notimpacted as a result of modifying the first aspect of the firstcomponent.
 19. The system of claim 14, wherein the instructionsconfigured to manipulate the one or more processors to display thevisual representation of the impact status of the second aspect of thesecond component comprise instructions configured to manipulate the oneor more processors to: display, via the GUI, a hierarchical list ofcomponents and aspects of the component, the second aspect of the secondcomponent represented by a listed item of the hierarchical list; anddisplay, via the GUI, a visual indicator in association with each itemlisted in the hierarchical list, the visual indicator identifying animpact status to the associated item resulting from one or moremodifications to the E/E architecture, the one or more modificationsincluding modifying the first aspect of the first component.
 20. Thesystem of claim 14, wherein the executable instructions furthercomprise: instructions configured to manipulate the one or moreprocessors to receive, via the GUI, user input indicating whether tocommit or remove the modification to the first aspect of the firstcomponent in response to displaying the visual representation of theimpact status of the second aspect of the second component; instructionsconfigured to manipulate the one or more processors to commit themodification to the first aspect of the first component to the E/Earchitecture in response to the user input indicating the modificationis to be committed; and instructions configured to manipulate the one ormore processors to remove the modification to the first aspect of thefirst component from the E/E architecture in response to the user inputindicating the modification is to be removed.